These are the first impressions of a power user after a week with the Diamond - I hope they might help others to decide whether to get one.
EDIT: Things have moved on since this post, you might want to look at post #39 too (page 4)
Background
I'm a power user but also a heavy day-to-day user as well. I use my phone for calling people, basic PDA functions, OTA google sync, web access, IMAP mail, GPS and also .NET software development. (I'm the author of 'Touch Settings') I used to have an HTC Touch. Before that, an HTC Prophet. Before that, an HTC MDA Compact.. ..you get the idea. I like HTC devices. I've stuck with them all, put up with their frustrations and watched them steadily improve. But this phone felt like the most exciting release yet. A massive leap forward in terms of specs. I was calling up Orange for about a month to find out the ETA. I actually RAN to the Orange Shop in Oxford Street and managed to get their last one in stock at the weekend!
So, one week in, here we go...
Great things
THE SCREEN
My favourite thing is the VGA screen. I cannot believe the difference it makes to the look of the phone, seriously. I could never go back to QVGA again now, this is a major improvement. Just reading the operator name in a slim, Arial-Narrow type font at the top of the screen and not being able to see the individual pixels, this is a true step forward. Everything, repeat, EVERYTHING looks better.
THE CAMERA
The auto-focus camera is nothing short of brilliant. Still rubbish in low-light levels, still no flash, but this is light-years ahead of the last one! I still get a little smirk of delight on my face when I hear it whirring as it focuses ahead of taking a picture!
A FASTER PROCESSOR
Hooray! FINALLY!... 528MHz ...4 times faster than my HTC Touch!...in theory. See below.
THE NEW ADD-ONS
Having GPS, FM radio, a tilt switch, a light sensor and more is fantastic. Teeter, the game, is awesome and will impress every person you know at a party.
THE SIZE
The Diamond is slightly smaller than the HTC Touch as well - easier to fit in a pocket. And it really does look gorgeous. Well done HTC.
Enough praise. Because then there's all this:
The Not-so-great things:
THE SPEED
Pop Quiz. Take your Windows Mobile phone. Tap the start button. Then tap 'Programs'. Does the window flash onto your screen immediately? No. There's a delay, isn't there? And sometimes you can even see it drawing every individual icon, top-to-bottom. On my HTC Touch, after a day of use, this took about 2 seconds.
On the Diamond, with TouchFlo 3D running, it's worse.
Skip this paragraph if you don't want a rant. Seriously, when are Windows Mobile phones actually going to get responsive enough to be useable? Delays when you press buttons, delays when you bring up menus, switch applications, etc, etc. What the hell is this operating system DOING with those 537 mega cycles per second??? Having patiently waited through my last THREE sloooow devices, I was thrilled at the thought of a phone that actually whizzed along... ...but it's a bit like going from XP on a slow computer to Vista on a fast computer - no noticable increase in speed at all. Such a crushing disappointment. My old Nokia could re-draw a screen faster 3 years ago. In this day and age, and with a processor doing a belting 500+ MHz, this should NOT be happening. Things should appear INSTANTLY and react the VERY MOMENT you touch them. I am running out of patience. The iPhone is looking more attactive every day.
TFL3D - INTERFACE
Fantastic to look at, but surprisngly sluggish to use. The more days that pass, the more it's becoming apparent that this interface is more about form and less about function. It's also often lacking in visual feedback; sometimes a button will move when you drag it (main nav bar at the bottom), sometimes not! You just have to swipe and see! Visual feedback is a very important part of user interface design.
COMMON ACTIONS, E.G. CALLING PEOPLE
I feel that, action-wise, some things have (incredibly) got HARDER since my HTC Touch. For example, I used to be able to call my favourite contacts with a swipe and a tap.. ..now it's a swipe, a complicated side-swipey thing, a painstaking wait for the piccies to flip around, and finally a tap. Er, hello? This is the MAIN THING I USE THE PHONE FOR - CALLING PEOPLE! I can't even position my favourite contacts in memorable places; again, a big factor in user interface design, hence why you remember where your icons are on your PC's desktop.
HOME SCREEN (TFL3D again really)
I can't add any custom home screen items! What the hell happened to being able to view my list of things to do? (tasks) Seriously, this is a shockingly bad step back. I know there are some apps to work around this, but I'm doing a review of the stock phone and software here.
THE JOYPAD
This should be renamed the joy-less pad. It's virtually impossible to click the Left and Right buttons without frequently mis-tapping and hitting the 'Back' or 'Hang Up' keys instead. There are no markings, you just sort of have to 'guess' where abouts on the flat screen to tap. The actual target area isn't big enough and I'm getting sick of quitting out of screens when I just want to move right or left. I've got fairly big hands but I'm no elephant.
The ipod-style 'whiz-around' wheel seems promising but when you try it, it's under-responsive and jerky in its movements. I would suggest that's why they've limited the applications that support it by default.
NO MINI SD CARD SLOT
Another step back - from 8Gb storage on my HTC Touch (with a mini SD card) to a paltry 4Gb now. Not enough to put all my music on the phone plus nav software, and no slot for more storage.
GROSS GREASINESS
As other forum users have pointed out, all that swiping on this shiny black device - it looks like the back of a transit van after a minute or so of use.
CONCLUSION
Owning an HTC Diamond is without doubt a step forward from an HTC Touch, but it's a smaller step than you might think. Be prepared for a mixed bag of emotions. Joy at the look of the thing, disappointment when you realise it's slower than you hoped, shouts of happiness when you first play 'Teeter', cries of frustration when the screen turns off randomly during calls or you miss-hit the joypad button or you can't swipe the tiny bit of the screen you're meant to.
After all that, I might surprise you by saying this. I would still say this phone is the best option on the market for the day-to-day user who wants an ultra-portable device that packs enough power to do that bit more than just making calls.
Just 24 hours into owning the phone I did my first ROM flash, from 1.37...1 to 1.37...3 - and this helped the speed somewhat and fixed a memory leak. I also tweaked the registry as much as I could. This has helped too, but the above problems are all still too evident, nothing has really improved enough to make me retract any of them. Keep watching these forums, though, because future ROM updates have the power to make this device much, much better.
That's about it, I hope these comments have helped, or given you something to debate in the space below. I'm going to stick with the Diamond for now. But I wouldn't mind betting I'll have completely disabled TouchFlo 3D before the week is out...
Carlos
I too wonder how long I will last with TF3D. However, the joypad is no problem. Simply use the centre button as a reference point. If you rest part of your thumb in there and press any side of it, then it is easy to navigate. At least I find it easy anyway. Hope that might help you.
carlosp_uk said:
I was calling up Orange for about a month to find out the ETA. I actually RAN to the Orange Shop in Oxford Street and managed to get their last one in stock at the weekend!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were really a fan you would have made sure you were the first, and didn't have to run
mcwtrekkie said:
If you were really a fan you would have made sure you were the first, and didn't have to run
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I may well have been Orange's first online order! Could not wait.
evilskanker said:
I think I may well have been Orange's first online order! Could not wait.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the spirit!
Has anyone managed to add a UK city to the weather forecast page ? I found it almost impossible to scroll down to the last page, it keeps selecting wrong countries, the only way I see - scroll one-by-one using hardware buttons ....
Yes, I added 3. Scroll with finger, well, more of a flick.
evilskanker said:
Yes, I added 3. Scroll with finger, well, more of a flick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I've tried about 20 different ways of scrolling with a finger, always end up with a list of south american cities ... (
Comparing to my old Orbit, I would say I have to press harder for screen to react ..
hertc said:
I think I've tried about 20 different ways of scrolling with a finger, always end up with a list of south american cities ... (
Comparing to my old Orbit, I would say I have to press harder for screen to react ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's at times like these that it would be good to be able to use the wheel for scrolling down.
evilskanker said:
It's at times like these that it would be good to be able to use the wheel for scrolling down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree, still remember Sony J7 I had long time ago, all these things were so easy with a wheel ..
hertc said:
Comparing to my old Orbit, I would say I have to press harder for screen to react ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apparently the Diamond is the first PocketPC device to have a tempered glass screen to make it extra tough. This makes it require a little more pressure than other devices.
But much more resilient to damage, and also nicer on the eye.
wasn't to amazed with the stock rom,
but after some days of usage and flashing the first cooked rom,
i am getting more and more into my new mobile..
Totally agree, using my Diamond for a week after three years on I-mate's.
carlosp_uk said:
CALLING PEOPLE
I feel that, action-wise, some things have (incredibly) got HARDER since my HTC Touch. For example, I used to be able to call my favourite contacts with a swipe and a tap.. ..now it's a swipe, a complicated side-swipey thing, a painstaking wait for the piccies to flip around, and finally a tap. Er, hello? This is the MAIN THING I USE THE PHONE FOR - CALLING PEOPLE! I can't even position my favourite contacts in memorable places;
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a suggestion -
Speed Dialing.
you can place at least SOME off your favorites in the positions you want.. and then it will just be one long press.. and it will dial.
Phone - menu - Speed Dial.
and of course.. there is always voice dialing.
Turn off TF3D. Ive heard is does HUGE things for the interface speed, and you'll get your tasks back (first thing Im going to do when I get a sprint diamond on this side of the pond)
I agree on almost every point
Not having used touch before, I really can't say anything bad about the navigation. To me it's a revolution, but it's not quite there yet.
The biggest flaw is the biggest asset. Let me explain.
The biggest asset to this device is the screen. I have never liked the screen on any of the QVGA devices I have used (Wizard and Hermes). The VGA screen on the Diamond is fantastic! Crisp and easy to read, even in direct sunlight. The words by HTC "Not too big, not too small" really sums up my feelings about it. However. Screen size is relative to what you display on it. I'm sure a lot of research, testing and effort went in to decide the size of the elements on the TF3D interface. Personally I would have designed it differently.
The main professional reason I choose to use a WiMo is Active Sync OTA (Over-The-Air). Having direct push of Mail, Calendar and Contacts to my device is critical in my profession. This HAS to work, it has to be easy to use, and easy to read. On the Diamond it works fantastically. Lots better than on the Hermes. It takes some getting used to, when you have never used touchflo before.
The touch interface has to be finger friendly, demanding finger sized icons and buttons. Having a small screen required HTC to use the entire screen. That makes you wish for a larger screen, yet a larger screen would require a larger device and I dont want that. Dilemma.
Like you said, the TF3D interface lacks in visual feedback. This could be replaced by tactile feedback. The same technology used in the game TEETER could be used to give me feedback on my actions.
Being a WiMo certified pro I know that the main obstacle for HTC is WiMo itself, or rather the Windows CE it is built upon. Win CE 5 is nowhere near a realtime OS and the switch to Win CE 6 (afaik it will be the foundation for WiMo 7) will be a major leap. CE6 is not a RTOS either, but it has the means to enable truly great applications. I look forward to what Developers will create for WiMo7.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_CE_6.0)
The only thing I really dislike on my Diamond is the scrollwheel. I clearly does not work like you would expect it to. Unintuitive. And the Up/Down/Left/Right navigation around it is near unusable. Using the touch screen works though so it is not a showstopper for me.
Speed of the interface is good once you have used the cache size tweaks. Not great but good.
I fully agree on the speed comment, 527mhz... but it seems it's different mhz compared to my HTC Herald (P4350).
On my Herald I also have WM6.1, a 200mhz cpu (o'ced to 240 mhz) and everything starts faster!
I've got the 1.37.xxx.3 rom on my Diamond, TF3D disabled and still it's slower.
Very strange indeed.
guys i suggest you all to flash duttythroy's diamond project v2 rom. it increased the usability amazingly.
guys i suggest you all to flash duttythroy's diamond project v2 rom. it increased the usability amazingly. and c'mon guys, our shiny precioussssssss is out some weeks. look what they've done with the kaiser within one year... stay patient and keep being excited for that genius piece of hardware.
carlosp_uk said:
These are the first impressions of a power user after a week with the Diamond - I hope they might help others to decide whether to get one.
Background
I'm a power user but also a heavy day-to-day user as well. I use my phone for calling people, basic PDA functions, OTA google sync, web access, IMAP mail, GPS and also .NET software development. (I'm the author of 'Touch Settings') I used to have an HTC Touch. Before that, an HTC Prophet. Before that, an HTC MDA Compact.. ..you get the idea. I like HTC devices. I've stuck with them all, put up with their frustrations and watched them steadily improve. But this phone felt like the most exciting release yet. A massive leap forward in terms of specs. I was calling up Orange for about a month to find out the ETA. I actually RAN to the Orange Shop in Oxford Street and managed to get their last one in stock at the weekend!
So, one week in, here we go...
Great things
THE SCREEN
My favourite thing is the VGA screen. I cannot believe the difference it makes to the look of the phone, seriously. I could never go back to QVGA again now, this is a major improvement. Just reading the operator name in a slim, Arial-Narrow type font at the top of the screen and not being able to see the individual pixels, this is a true step forward. Everything, repeat, EVERYTHING looks better.
THE CAMERA
The auto-focus camera is nothing short of brilliant. Still rubbish in low-light levels, still no flash, but this is light-years ahead of the last one! I still get a little smirk of delight on my face when I hear it whirring as it focuses ahead of taking a picture!
A FASTER PROCESSOR
Hooray! FINALLY!... 528MHz ...4 times faster than my HTC Touch!...in theory. See below.
THE NEW ADD-ONS
Having GPS, FM radio, a tilt switch, a light sensor and more is fantastic. Teeter, the game, is awesome and will impress every person you know at a party.
THE SIZE
The Diamond is slightly smaller than the HTC Touch as well - easier to fit in a pocket. And it really does look gorgeous. Well done HTC.
Enough praise. Because then there's all this:
The Not-so-great things:
THE SPEED
Pop Quiz. Take your Windows Mobile phone. Tap the start button. Then tap 'Programs'. Does the window flash onto your screen immediately? No. There's a delay, isn't there? And sometimes you can even see it drawing every individual icon, top-to-bottom. On my HTC Touch, after a day of use, this took about 2 seconds.
On the Diamond, with TouchFlo 3D running, it's worse.
Skip this paragraph if you don't want a rant. Seriously, when are Windows Mobile phones actually going to get responsive enough to be useable? Delays when you press buttons, delays when you bring up menus, switch applications, etc, etc. What the hell is this operating system DOING with those 537 mega cycles per second??? Having patiently waited through my last THREE sloooow devices, I was thrilled at the thought of a phone that actually whizzed along... ...but it's a bit like going from XP on a slow computer to Vista on a fast computer - no noticable increase in speed at all. Such a crushing disappointment. My old Nokia could re-draw a screen faster 3 years ago. In this day and age, and with a processor doing a belting 500+ MHz, this should NOT be happening. Things should appear INSTANTLY and react the VERY MOMENT you touch them. I am running out of patience. The iPhone is looking more attactive every day.
TFL3D - INTERFACE
Fantastic to look at, but surprisngly sluggish to use. The more days that pass, the more it's becoming apparent that this interface is more about form and less about function. It's also often lacking in visual feedback; sometimes a button will move when you drag it (main nav bar at the bottom), sometimes not! You just have to swipe and see! Visual feedback is a very important part of user interface design.
COMMON ACTIONS, E.G. CALLING PEOPLE
I feel that, action-wise, some things have (incredibly) got HARDER since my HTC Touch. For example, I used to be able to call my favourite contacts with a swipe and a tap.. ..now it's a swipe, a complicated side-swipey thing, a painstaking wait for the piccies to flip around, and finally a tap. Er, hello? This is the MAIN THING I USE THE PHONE FOR - CALLING PEOPLE! I can't even position my favourite contacts in memorable places; again, a big factor in user interface design, hence why you remember where your icons are on your PC's desktop.
HOME SCREEN (TFL3D again really)
I can't add any custom home screen items! What the hell happened to being able to view my list of things to do? (tasks) Seriously, this is a shockingly bad step back. I know there are some apps to work around this, but I'm doing a review of the stock phone and software here.
THE JOYPAD
This should be renamed the joy-less pad. It's virtually impossible to click the Left and Right buttons without frequently mis-tapping and hitting the 'Back' or 'Hang Up' keys instead. There are no markings, you just sort of have to 'guess' where abouts on the flat screen to tap. The actual target area isn't big enough and I'm getting sick of quitting out of screens when I just want to move right or left. I've got fairly big hands but I'm no elephant.
The ipod-style 'whiz-around' wheel seems promising but when you try it, it's under-responsive and jerky in its movements. I would suggest that's why they've limited the applications that support it by default.
NO MINI SD CARD SLOT
Another step back - from 8Gb storage on my HTC Touch (with a mini SD card) to a paltry 4Gb now. Not enough to put all my music on the phone plus nav software, and no slot for more storage.
GROSS GREASINESS
As other forum users have pointed out, all that swiping on this shiny black device - it looks like the back of a transit van after a minute or so of use.
CONCLUSION
Owning an HTC Diamond is without doubt a step forward from an HTC Touch, but it's a smaller step than you might think. Be prepared for a mixed bag of emotions. Joy at the look of the thing, disappointment when you realise it's slower than you hoped, shouts of happiness when you first play 'Teeter', cries of frustration when the screen turns off randomly during calls or you miss-hit the joypad button or you can't swipe the tiny bit of the screen you're meant to.
After all that, I might surprise you by saying this. I would still say this phone is the best option on the market for the day-to-day user who wants an ultra-portable device that packs enough power to do that bit more than just making calls.
Just 24 hours into owning the phone I did my first ROM flash, from 1.37...1 to 1.37...3 - and this helped the speed somewhat and fixed a memory leak. I also tweaked the registry as much as I could. This has helped too, but the above problems are all still too evident, nothing has really improved enough to make me retract any of them. Keep watching these forums, though, because future ROM updates have the power to make this device much, much better.
That's about it, I hope these comments have helped, or given you something to debate in the space below. I'm going to stick with the Diamond for now. But I wouldn't mind betting I'll have completely disabled TouchFlo 3D before the week is out...
Carlos
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what a crap...
THE SPEED
Put one of the new ROMs on it (Dutty, Walshieau), runs like hell. No delay here!
TFL3D - INTERFACE
Simply switch TF3D off if you don't like it.
And use an existing tool for your today (SPB Mobile Shell ect.).
COMMON ACTIONS, E.G. CALLING PEOPLE
Disable the Diamond dialer, you get your traditional dialer back.
HOME SCREEN (TFL3D again really)
Simply switch TF3D off.
Use an existing tool for today (SPB Mobile Shell ect.).
THE JOYPAD
Get used to it, it works perfect after a few weeks.
NO MINI SD CARD SLOT
Ok, maybe you got a point...
On the other hand: do you really need ALL your music all the time. A sync now and then for other music isn't that hard.
GROSS GREASINESS
Ok, the shiny cover gets greasy. But is't so beautiful,,,
I am really in love with my bionic and would love to make the typing experience more joyable for taking notes etc.
I have heard a lot of negativity surrounding it though, anyone who purchased it care to share their experience?
Is it really laggy or stuttery?
Is the browser at least functional? Do HD youtube videos work?
I played with it for a few minutes in the store. The keyboard was definitely laggy. Also, the review that I read on Engadget said that it's actually slower than a $200 netbook. Their and my suggestion would be wait for the customer roms to come out, and then use the wireless hotspot or usb tethering. I think you'll like it better.
If you google Engadget Droid Bionic, the review will pop up.
Yeah, from what I've heard, it's very slow. I haven't actually tested it out myself, though. Perhaps call up your local Verizon store or maybe Best Buy and ask if they have any test units.
Yeah, I can chime in on this one. I bouht the dock on launch day.
First what I like:
* Plays Netflix well. This is nice for me. I usually watch an episode of South Park over lunch and it's better than looking at my smaller phone screen.
* Browsing the internet is good. Especially if you are on 4G
What I don't like:
* LAG - Like everyone says, it has some significant lag at times.
* Start up - It's very finnicky about starting up correctly. You are supposed to put your phone on the dock and then open the lid. Even when doing so, sometimes it will not come on.
* The single thing I hate the most are LOW MEMORY WARNINGS. It seems like everytime I have more than two things open, I get a popup telling me that I'm low on memory and need to close some apps.
I mainly bought this thing so I could play battle pirates while I was in the car, on a break, or just away from home in general. I can start to play it, but as soon as I do,.... memory error.
Anyway, I think the concept is great but the whole setup could use some more RAM to help remedy most of the Lag and memory overun issues.
I will be taking mine back later this week. Not worth the $300 price tag in my opinion.
I for one love the lapdock. I think it accompanies the mobile device well. The bionic is fully functional while docked. I don't expect to get the same performance as I would a full blown laptop. But.... It's great being able to surf the internet with the larger screen and a full size keyboard, and yet being able to just undock the phone and be on the go. And yes... with the 4G surfing the Internet is awesome. The only thing I have to get used to use the left/right mouse clicks on the lapdock are a bit stiff. There is a little lag sometimes using the lapdock, but it isn't that bad.
All in all I am very satisfied with the lapdock and don't regret buying it. It is a great accessory to an already great mobile device. FREAKIN AWESOME!!!
I also purchased the lap dock on launch day but I have taken it back due to the lag. I had hoped to replace at least one device and use it to access my virtual desktop which does work great as a web top app. In the end the lag killed it for me and I could not justify the price. Great concept and would have loved it to work. I will say the HD dock works great!
I've got next to no RAM free evidently and it makes it rather difficult to use the lapdock. It actually responds fairly well otherwise other than my spacebar refusing to register unless I slam it. Rather annoying! Once I cleared up some RAM though things are running far better. Gonna give it a few more days (this is my first night with it) so I can give it time to settle in.
I bought the bionic, lapdock and extended battery the second day of launch.
PROS:
Firefox 3.0 (haven't tried plugins with adblocker yet)
Surfing with 4g is a very positive experience
1080p streaming works great
2 USB connections in the rear works great for a wireless mouse with scroller (haven't tried with a gamepad to see if it works. Excited to try with psx4droid playing final fantasy to see if it works)
Very easy to type with keyboard
Lapdock has a built in 8 hour batt that charges your phone as well
Works great with netfilx and nfl mobile on 4g
Thin, lightweight
Good resolution
Full access to phone
Answer phone calls with speaker without having to lean over
Settings for screensaver time, mouse speed controls, changeable desktop background
Lapdock batt life indicator
Windows ctrl commands work such as ctrl+p, ctrl+c, ctrl+v, ctrl++, ctrl+- for example
CONS:
Spacebar needs to be slammed in at times to register.
Needs to be custom rom'ed and overclocked without breaking webdock or lapdock
Minimal multitasking
Speaker system seems too generic
Upon initial usage system is very laggy and must be opened and closed a few times
No autoscroller on touchpad (must use page up and down arrows, becomes bearable with mouse/scroller)
Resolution of mobileview is not optimized
Wish there was a earphone/mic jack on the from of lapdock right below the touchpad
Definitely not as good and powerful as $300 netbook, but it works. I'm not sure if firefox uses both cores. It doesn't seem like it.
I see what some people are talking about regarding lag now, after using the webtop for a while. Biggest problem/concern is the Memory Manager - Low Memory error with a few tabs open in Firefox.....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=17590527#post17590527
Thoughts on it, display in sunlight, battery life, handling of notifications, look/feel of it on your wrist..... basically anything to do with the watch!
i like it. granted that its a new class of its own, i still get confused especially when i get multiple notifications on an app (ie hangouts). its confusing where the group text starts or if im still being shown a private text..
the screen is kinda hard to read in direct sunlight but tilting it a bit or using a different watch face helps.
i like the feel of it.. i preferred this over the g watch coz of the added feature and the look.
I really like it; however, screen is difficult to see in sunlight at times; screen is also a smudge magnet which adds to difficulties in seeing the display outdoors.
Love it - compared to the sony smartwatch and the Galaxy Gear it really has great improvements. Only Day 2, but my initial thoughts:
Pros
- Look/feel - it is little large (I don't have big wrists) but still stylish.
- Screen: awesome that the clock is always on, this was my biggest gripe about the Gear
- Usefulness: I've spent time training Google Now, and that's really paid off. Notifications mean i take my phone out of my pocket a lot less, and Google Now surfaces reminders and other useful info pretty well (although you don't have a lot of control over the order of notifications etc). The fact that it syncs dismissed notifications on the phone immediately is, in a word, awesome
- Apps: early days yet on this, but most big apps I'm sure will integrate so you can do the key features easily
- Voice recognition works great so far
Cons
- No speaker means if you want to do stuff without looking at the screen with your voice, it's harder. But seems like something I can live with
- Charging dongle is kinda annoying to fit on, and have to remember to travel with
- Starting an app (say Fit) takes a few too many swipes (if you're in a place where you don't want to be speaking to your wrist...)
A lot of the other potential "cons" like not many watch face designs, no feature to locate your phone (I know there's an app for this though) I reckon will play out over time and Google can fix pretty quickly...
A
eurorauser said:
, no feature to locate your phone (I know there's an app for this though) I reckon will play out over time and Google can fix pretty quickly...
A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take a look at this one for that: Wear Aware
i'm pleasantly surprised with how much i'm enjoying it.
my first full day with it will be tomorrow so i haven't taken it outside in the sunlight much yet, but checking email, counting steps, reading and replying to texts (i use evolve and it works great) is great and much more reliable and smoother than it was on my OG gear, and it's proving to be far more useful than my pebble.
the strap is actually quite comfortable and i'm glad i didn't buy a new strap before getting the watch.
the charging cradle, if you put it on tab side first it snaps in much easier. it's annoying but i haven't found it to be the spawn of lucifer as some people were screaming about it. treat it like part of a $200 gadget and it will be fine. mash it on like the hulk and it's going to break, it is plastic tabs after all.
i used it for about 7 hours today and it's now around 65% remaining. moderate use, but i def was clicking and swiping for no reason since it's new as well. i am pretty sure i'll have to charge it every night, but i don't sleep with a watch on and i charge my phone every night too, so i don't see it as being a big issue. my pebble lasted longer, but it would often die since i didn't have a set pattern on when to charge and would head out and a few hours later realize i had 20% left.
so in short, i'm happy, yes there are growing pains but those are the early adopter blues.
So far very please for what it can do. Regarding bot visible in sunlight, tell me what phone is visible in sunlight. None of them are great, only the kinfpdle due to the ink screen it has. I can wait till indoors or in shade. 9 more days testing and then deciding to keep or not. Off charging cradle at 6:30am today and as of this post still has 34% left. About the same as my previous Gear watch.
Ian B
The number of apps pouring in each day are a great sign for the platform as a whole. The Tizen gears were nothing like this.
Quick reply.... I like it. Had Nero, no comparison.
I've had a few issues and design factors that I'd like changed:
Hate the alarm mute icon. I would love to figure out a way to hide that on the clock face. Would make the watch look more watchie if you will.
Also would like to only wake the watch from the button vice touchscreen, or atleast an option to set that insettings.
Does anyone else find themselves open palming your watch to put it in hybernate?
FynxSyndct said:
Does anyone else find themselves open palming your watch to put it in hybernate?
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I pressed it against my forehead earlier because I was in bed and my other arm wasn't free.
SkuzFoz said:
I pressed it against my forehead earlier because I was in bed and my other arm wasn't free.
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This really made me LOL
I'll be the lone wolf in the wilderness by bucking the trend and saying that I'm very disappointed with my Gear Live. I'm a gadget lover and really wanted to love this device. But I was far more enthusiastic about this thing before I actually received it. Once I had one, I quickly grew disappointed with it.
Out of the box, pairing with my Nexus 5 took multiple attempts. Once I finally did get it paired, only the stock apps would work. Any apps that I downloaded from the Play store would run on my phone but the watch interface would never show up (no matter how many times I tried to force the apps to sync via the Android Wear app or rebooted the watch).
Factory resetting the watch and starting again cleared up that problem but I still found the functionality of the watch to be quirky at best. Add to that the fact that the screen is virtually impossible to read outdoors, the lack of support for continuous heart rate monitoring, and the sudden dramatic drop in my Nexus 5's battery life (which cleared up after I uninstalled the Android Wear app).
Bottom line for me is that this isn't ready to replace my old fashioned watch. So until I read about some new killer Wear app that I can't live without, the Gear Live had gone back into its box to be stored away. I'm hoping that the software will mature quickly to a point where I can give it another try.
Does gear live suport sleep monitoring? Can it automatically figure out that user is cycling?
How good is the fitness tracking on it?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
Hello everyone, I am very interested in buying this tablet because of the win 8.1+Android boot BUT I have read mixed reviews that some come ok while others come with problems. I personally don't want to deal with broken youtube, play store and etc.
Is there like a stock android ROM for this? Will flashing a new ROM damage the windows in the Tablet? Is it fairly straightfoward like a normal android tablet? Any tips, opinions, reviews and etc. Are greatly appreciated.
I have purchased this tablet and using it for a few weeks now. Dual boot Air II (not the 3G as I've seen videos on youtube showing that they are slower than the Air II). When I first got it, the play store wasn't working, however, when I updated the software through Teclast's update app (all in chinese) it work.
I haven't had any problems with it so far, everything is working fine. I've tried some very heavy games without any lag. It just lowers the brightness if it gets to hot. Also another note, I hated their UI, I think they tried to copy iOS. So I just downloaded a custom launcher and fixed the problem.
Based from my own experience I would recommend this tablet. I also bought it for the dual boot capabilities. (came pre-installed with dual boot windows 8.1 + android 4.4.4)
im quite frustrated with mine...here are the reasons.
windows runs very well. would be great apart from the fact that the battery wont get me through a whole day of fair use. also, wifi seems to drop sometimes.
android runs SLOW. launcher stuff is a bit laggy. it has to pause to think quite often. and wifi, again seems very spotty - stops working for 30 seconds randomly - frustrating.
also....with regards putting different roms on, etc - there is less knowledge out there about the Air ii - most of the posts are relevant to the 3g model so finding solid information about the Air ii is difficult. I cant recommend at this stage...
in regards to the wifi, try turning off wifi optimization in the settings
it seemed to work better on mine after I turned it off.
buddy,
how's the battery life?
any cons now???
Got the Teclast X98 Air 2 HG8N a few days ago from TinyDeal. Arrived with dual boot 4.4/8.1, both in Chinese. Had to change to English, get online and ran OTA/Windows updates. No issues with camera orientation or Google Play. So far, very nice tablet. The Windows experience is odd. I want to swipe a lot for navigation since I've owned a few iOS/Android tablets before. Taking some getting used to actually using scrollbars again. Also found out that some sites and programs really are not designed for such a relatively small screen. Options are very small and hard to hit correctly with a finger. Stylus helps, but still tricky occasionally. I would recommend it with the caveats that it will not be in English, Android has a lot of crapware, and Windows can be tricky. I would like to install W10 and custom ROM but still trying to get a handle on the process for this model. Similar model threads are hundreds of pages, and may not be entirely compatible with this one.
Editing my post after getting a few more days hands on with this one. Initially there was a lot of focus on setup, config, tweaking, it was my new toy. Got it to a comfortable, useable state and now down to actual usage. The screen is gorgeous, that part still holds very true. The battery life is terrible. Android seems better than Windows, but I haven't done any benchmarking or close examination. It looks like for Android at least, the OS itself is consuming the most battery. I haven't gotten a single day of usage without stopping to charge at least once. I pretty much just keep it plugged up unless I walk outside with it for a bit. Right now focusing on how I can replace the pre-installed OS's and see if that will be any better. I have years of experience in IT, but not in an area like this so it is slow going for the moment. I'd recommend this still, but be prepared to tinker a long time. If you want an out of the box experience ready to go then this is not a good choice at all.
I have had my airII 3g since about february 2015. I still like it. screen is great - usually have the brightness turned right down to low as I use it indoors. have used both windows and android and it works well. I prefer to use android, windows buttons can be small to try and touch. Main use for mine is just facebook and internet browsing, and reading books, I did take it on a couple 8 hour flights and watched downloaded videos in windows and it was awesome. Speakers could be a bit louder. Once I rooted it and removed chinese android seems to run way better, battery life is good in my opinion but I guess im not a heavy user. I do have wifi drops in android although I recently downloaded wififix from playstore and it seems to be a lot better. Also after rooting i have found I rarely get the thermal brightness throttling message - cant remember last time I saw it. Tablet seems well made and has a bit of weight to it, I have mine in a Ipad air case which is good, its just the camera holes dont match. The 2.5amp charger that comes with it would be the minimum I would want to charge it with, my kids have teclast x80h with 2amp charger and its too small. I think there is also an issue when having bluetooth on for my headphone and using the wifi at same time can cause wifi to be slow. either way I am happy with purchase, knowing that at the end of the day it is a chinese tablet and would require tinkering with and maybe some issues, but its great specs for the money. I dont use 3g on it, i mainly only bought it as it was 64gig model.
It is a great device
i have the air ii hg9m and i would only recommend this to someone who is comfortable troubleshooting and fixing small issues as these chinese tablets are plagued with them, fortunately theres tons of support from this site with lots of cool people fixing any issue that might arise, as for mine (the newest air ii at the time of this hg9m) ive only had minor issues, like choppy 3d games in android, standby battery drain in windows, some overheating, slow charging and battery calibration issues, and no ota updates in android. but the basic functionality of the device has remained in tact. Thats also a huge advantage of dual os, if im having an issue with one os i can try the other to do what i want. If youre truly looking for a trouble free experience then apple is the way to go, imo they are your best bet at a good 100% trouble free experience, but you pay a lot for those odds.
Stylus?
arcanadei said:
Taking some getting used to actually using scrollbars again. Also found out that some sites and programs really are not designed for such a relatively small screen. Options are very small and hard to hit correctly with a finger. Stylus helps, but still tricky occasionally. I would recommend it with the caveats that it will not be in English, Android has a lot of crapware, and Windows can be tricky. I would like to install W10 and custom ROM but still trying to get a handle on the process for this model. Similar model threads are hundreds of pages, and may not be entirely compatible with this one.
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Would you mind sharing what stylus are you using that works with this tablet? I have not found one that works.
Thanks!
gatorgal88 said:
Would you mind sharing what stylus are you using that works with this tablet?
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Couple of little generics I had laying around but both had a metal mesh tip. The rubber tips didn't work for me on this one either.