Anyone try the Nexus 4? - Galaxy Note GT-N7000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I've had my Note since November 2011 (well a Note as I lost one and proceeded to buy another one). I still love the phone, the screen size is great and the white Note still gets a lot of attention over a year later (most people call it or actually think it's the mini ipad). Well I just successfully ordered a 16gb Nexus 4, now I am trying to decide if I will give it as a gift and keep the note or try something new. Does anyone have both and can tell me the pros and cons?
I like the Notes screen size, sd card slot, TW and honestly that it's still a unique device however I like the specs on the Nexus 4, NFC, wireless charging, and LED light. I feel the note is actually better looking than the Nexus and although I heard the Nexus has great build quality it will just got lost in the sea of black phones versus my white Note. I am not too concerned with the 16gb, I used to have a 16gb iphone and never ran out of space. I honestly am torn, I am not sure if some of the new features outweigh the screen size, uniqueness, and TW? Any other opinions? I realize they will be bias in the Note section.
Also any comparison on cameras, I love how great the pictures come out on my Note in the dark. My friends with iphone 4 and iphone 4s always want me to use my camera since it takes such better pictures than their phones when the flash is on, I wonder how the nexus 4 camera compares to the original Note camera?
BTW don't care about removeable battery or the spen, I barely ever use it.

I suffer from a severe upgradeitis, and since Nexus 4 is actually affordable (which couldn't be said about the GNex), I am jumping ship and getting myself one. I will probably suffer because of the smaller screen (I really got fond of Note's size), and I loathe the lack of microSD slot, but I love everything else about the N4.

I am with the N4...
You'll suffer for:
smaller screen
less vivid colors
lower quality of the camera
spen (if you use it frequently)
You'll like:
Google updates
smaller screen (will let you use it with one hand)
your wallet
led notifications
project butter full compliancy
impressive response
PolishDude said:
I've had my Note since November 2011 (well a Note as I lost one and proceeded to buy another one). I still love the phone, the screen size is great and the white Note still gets a lot of attention over a year later (most people call it or actually think it's the mini ipad). Well I just successfully ordered a 16gb Nexus 4, now I am trying to decide if I will give it as a gift and keep the note or try something new. Does anyone have both and can tell me the pros and cons?
I like the Notes screen size, sd card slot, TW and honestly that it's still a unique device however I like the specs on the Nexus 4, NFC, wireless charging, and LED light. I feel the note is actually better looking than the Nexus and although I heard the Nexus has great build quality it will just got lost in the sea of black phones versus my white Note. I am not too concerned with the 16gb, I used to have a 16gb iphone and never ran out of space. I honestly am torn, I am not sure if some of the new features outweigh the screen size, uniqueness, and TW? Any other opinions? I realize they will be bias in the Note section.
Also any comparison on cameras, I love how great the pictures come out on my Note in the dark. My friends with iphone 4 and iphone 4s always want me to use my camera since it takes such better pictures than their phones when the flash is on, I wonder how the nexus 4 camera compares to the original Note camera?
BTW don't care about removeable battery or the spen, I barely ever use it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I was thinking about getting one, but i don't like the hardware. Smaller screen and it's actually thinner than the Note, but it looks like a damn brick. Most of you don't care about these things, but i do

My Nexus 4 arrives December 10th. For me, I'm going to miss the screen the most on the Note which I still think is one of the nicest to look at. My wife has the One X which everyone tells me is the best display on a phone, but we both prefer the colours and general impression of the Note, even if they are unnatural.
Biggest reason for the purchase is that I'm tired of Samsung's BS with software updates and closed-source platform. I want the latest version of Android when it's released, not months later. I use aosp anyway, have never liked TW.
Things I expect to like about the Nexus are the smaller size (I don't know why but after a year of having the Note I'm starting to find its size prohibitive more often than I used to) , LED notification, proper Butter, software updates and general speed.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

None of you is bothered by the lack of an SD card slot? To me, this is definitely a showstopper along with the non-removable battery (iPhone style for the lose).

My main concern about the Nexus 4 is that it is just generic Android. I don't like the bloat around the other implementations such as TouchWiz, but there's a couple of dealbreaker bugs in stock Android that Samsung, HTC etc have fixed. I don't know why Google haven't.
In particular the Email client can't work with Exchange when offline. Deleting emails on the device leaves them all on the server still, even after connection is established and sync run. Makes it pretty useless for managing emails on a commute. Samsung, HTC and even Motorola have fixed this problem, but it's still in the base Android and has been since at least ICS and possibly HC. Google don't seem interested.
It gets even worse with Imap, where it puts all the emails you've deleted back on the device once you sync. Again HTC and Motorola have fixed this, although Samsung has this problem.
Seems a basic issue, but means I won't recommend these devices for corporate use until it is fixed.
Nick

I don't care about non-removable battery, I only take out my battery if I need to access my SIM or SD card, so not a big deal for me.
Lack of SD slot and puny internal memory is a bummer for sure, but I've decided I can live with that. In return, I get stock android experience without the need of using custom ROMs (and let's face it - while CM10 for the Note is awesome, it has its issues), I'm always up to speed with new Android releases (instead of waiting for CM to catch up), awesome hjardware, and great looks. Fair tradeoff in my opinion. I will mourn the lack of SD slot and lack of FM Radio, but I'll deal with it. I got my Note last year only because it was carrier-subsided, and I couldn't afford to buy an unlocked GNex.

Got the phone in, so far I rooted it. I need to play around with it for a bit before I decide which phone I want to keep.

Yes I bought 3 nexus 4 mobile phones really amazing phones hyper fast feels good gonna rom it rip it root it to the max.... This baby will blast off!!!!
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

I too have the nexus 4
Sold my galaxy note
And yes there's a difference in size but you get use to it
It's amazingly fast and already with 4.2.1

I'm rented by the price but lack of micro sd ruins it. Out of the 16 gig you will be lucky to have access to 11gig, as with other phones. I love my music and have a lot of roms on board so 11g is nothing.
From the man in your attic...

Can I just ask around a question, real quick. What's all that speed for? (casual) gaming?

Nexus 4 for me is the Android version of an iPhone, and unfortunately I am not meaning it as a compliment. As someone already stated in this topic, no sd card, no removable battery just means that if you want to take lots of pictures, videos, get your off-line Navigation with the entire Europe Maps (about 3.7GB) on your device there is not much left for anything else. I have seen a review where they state that only 12,3GB are available for the end user. That might be OK for some people, but I am not one of them.
Another thing is that if you want to use it a gamers phone, with this storage and HD games now available you will be able to get 3, maybe 4 big games in it, which is not something I would call ground breaking.
Last but not least, the battery in the phone will loose its charge over time. I am not a type of person to carry with me extra batteries and swap them around, but after some time everyone notices that their battery is not what it used to be. Specially when you want to buy / sell a second hand phone, being able to change the battery for a new one and enjoy your phone as when it was unpacked is something that Nexus 4 users will not be able to experience without getting their hands dirty and probably voiding the warranty of the device.

Sound Problems?
Does anyone here suffer from the Earpiece Defect in Nexus 4 that got mentioned in Mashable?
http://mashable.com/2012/11/25/google-nexus-4-defect/

Kortxero said:
None of you is bothered by the lack of an SD card slot? To me, this is definitely a showstopper along with the non-removable battery (iPhone style for the lose).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know the OP doesn't care, but for me this is the showstopper (which would only change if a reasonably priced 64gb model came out). As others have said, this is the iPhone of Androids, and not in a good way. The lack of removable battery gets me as well as I use my phone so much that I need either two batteries or an extended battery.
But the pros are Butter, good updates etc. But personally ill stick with the Note until the Note 3 (or something better arrives), mainly through choice than cost.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda app-developers app

iyousif said:
Does anyone here suffer from the Earpiece Defect in Nexus 4 that got mentioned in Mashable?
http://mashable.com/2012/11/25/google-nexus-4-defect/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I have a the distortion going on. Like, for the quality of the speaker to be good and not have any type of audio artifact, I need to keep the volume at 30% at all times. Anything higher, and certain pitches starts distorting/cracking. I guess one "fix" for this would be to change the kernel code to restrict the volume range of the speaker so that the maximum would be much lower. It could be the case that the kernel is actually overdriving the speaker module which results in the distortion. Whatever it is, it is definitely annoying to hear the edges of a person's voice gets distorted.
It's like they opted to use the cheapest POS speaker module they could find with an extremely limited range. The speaker on the Galaxy Note is a world better.
I have both....the screen size is something to get used to without a doubt. It is so tiny, but it is bearable. The constant updates from Google makes this phone worth it seeing how Samsung is a POS when it comes to releasing sources.
I'm also seeing some banding on the screen. Not sure if it's because of the screen or due to the image used (low bit).
I have an RMA on the way soon and will compare how the newer unit fares.

As NickC42 pointed out, I don't like stock Google android for few of these nitpicking stuffs -
1. Does not support speed dial? Hello Google!!??
2. Email/Calendar clients are white background black text. Why can't they have optional reverse color?
3. Oh I didn't know about those Exchange Email annoyances - total dealbreaker.
Sent from GNote.

willstay said:
As NickC42 pointed out, I don't like stock Google android for few of these nitpicking stuffs -
1. Does not support speed dial? Hello Google!!??
2. Email/Calendar clients are white background black text. Why can't they have optional reverse color?
3. Oh I didn't know about those Exchange Email annoyances - total dealbreaker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.Install custom rom/mod
2.Install inverted gapps
3.No single issue with exchange.
All this can be solved in 10 mniutes. This is Android. Want everything out of the box? Buy iPhone.

My reasoning was why I do not like stock Android aka Nexus. If I have to install custom ROM, it defeats purpose of buying a Nexus device.
Edited: Ask yourself ahalford why do people buy Nexus device? Because they get update from God Google on day one. What is use of that update if it never fixes few of the basic things?
Edited 2: Maybe you have iPhone hidden inside your secret stash and know it enough to recommend to other people. How about giving us out of the box experience one gets from iPhone?
Sent from GNote.

Related

"Upgrade" to a Nexus S and sell my N1?

Hopefully someone here can better explain the differences, pros, and cons of each.
I've been doing some quick research and looking around, even played with the Nexus S at Best Buy, and it seems the main (and ONLY) difference is that the NS has a bigger screen than the N1.
It's my understanding that they both share the same processor, both have the same amount of RAM, both have the same camera, etc.
The only "advantage" to the Nexus S would be the bigger screen and more on-board memory for apps and such, correct?
I can get the Nexus S for $200 through Best Buy and could in turn sell my N1 with it's dock for $400 (already have a buyer lined up). My biggest question, however, is what does the N1 do that the NS does NOT do? Would this be a logical thing to do or is there something that the NS would be lacking by comparison?
Well the NS does not have an SD slot so your stuck with the 16GB of storage.
The NS does have a FFC.
The CPUs are both 1GHz but the NS' is of a newer architecture and is a bit faster especially with games.
The NS touchscreen is better.
I only have an 8GB SD card in my N1 and it's been more than enough, so the "limited" 16GB that the NS has shouldn't be a problem for me.
I'm not sure what "FFC" is...can you define/explain?
Faster or even equal speeds in the processor is fine. I just knew it was close and wasn't inferior to the N1 like a lot of other phones that have come out recently.
And what exactly makes the touchscreen better on the NS? Better resolution or just better responsiveness?
EDIT: I think I just figured out "FFC" means "front facing camera", correct? Not something I'd use, but doesn't hurt either.
It seems that there really isn't a reason NOT to do this exchange. Everything that the N1 can do the NS does and then some. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything that I'd be missing out on if I got rid of my N1 after having gotten used to it for so long. Seems like it would be an easy and smooth transition.
How easy is it to obtain all Google Market apps that have already been purchased when switching devices like this? They're all tied to the account, correct?
Tenacious Steve said:
How easy is it to obtain all Google Market apps that have already been purchased when switching devices like this? They're all tied to the account, correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty much, yes. You can get some exceptions - eg CoPilot Live is fiddly to transfer, but the Android licence is valid cross-device (you need to deactivate the old device first). In general, if you've purchased from the market and use the same account on the new phone your apps should be available without issue.
I've transferred from G1, to Magic, to N1 without losing any apps to date (although I've sworn a bit at CoPilot )
Keep in mind the Nexus S doesn't have a notification led.
Apart from the glossy plastic i think the Nexus S is a good device. If it doesn't have the screen inaccuracy or power button failure issues of the N1 it could be a worthwhile upgrade.
Depends how affluent you are feeling right now
I asked myself the same question and I came up with these answers.
N1 is better built
upgradeable sd slot
has a notification led
has less a tendency of sliding out of your hand
same specs
and samsung is notorious about never releasing any updates for any of their phones.
Don't forget the nexus s does not have 2 Mic's. There have been some reports of bad call quality on it in noisy environments with background noise.
Having owned them both...
NS has the NFC (near field communication), which one day may be nice.
The 16gb limit does not really present a problem.
The screen is bigger and is supposedly better, but I didn't see anything that really made the new screen stand out, it is nice. It is curved slightly, which is kinda nice.
NS does not have the same build quality, and does not have the unibody, metal design. The Nexus S does feel cheap next to the N1, but it is not showstopper. N1 has a much cleaner design and looks much 'sexier' IMHO.
NS does not have the trackball, much less the lighted trackball of the N1. NS does not even have a charge indicator.
NS does not come with a case or dedicated charger (has the brick and a data cable)
NS with gingerbread is fast, but does not yet have the dev support of the N1.
I felt the cameras were about similar.
NS does not have the second mic (as someone else pointed out). Not sure about call quality of the listener on the other end. I had problems with reboots, but Google knows there is a problem and is working on it.
Why o Why did they change the order of the home/search/menu/back keys in the NS -what a pain.
NS no SD slot.
NS does not have the dock pins on the bottom to use with a car/desktop dock.
NS has a front camera and more RAM
I would wait until Gingerbread comes out for the N1 before you jump ship. You have 30 days to send the phone back to best buy if you don't like it...
Just felt that the new NS was not 'Google' enough for me. Just missing too many little things. It is like they were trying to make a new Nexus that is *more* like the iphone. Kinda a sellout thing to do in my opinion.
My opinion is to keep your N1, the NS is not a real upgrade in my mind.
EDIT:
another difference... Both have 512 of RAM. N1 has 512 of "ROM", while the NS has 16gb of storage, 1gb reserved for apps and OS.
Thanks for all the replies, guys! After reading some and doing quite a bit more research, including watching comparison videos on YouTube, I have decided to wait.
The only "new" feature that I'd use with the NS is the bigger screen, but I don't really feel that should stand alone as a reason to "upgrade".
The speed differences in the comparison videos were very, VERY minimal and it appears that the N1 has better graphics handling than the NS. It's possible that the minimal speed differences were simply due to the NS having Gingerbread, so hopefully I'll see an increase with the upcoming update for the N1 although if I don't, it's no big problem since it's still the fastest phone I've messed around with.
Another reason is the battery. I've gone as long as 36 hours on my N1 with a single charge and normal use and usually have 60-70% battery life left after a full 15 hour day of being in use. I hear the NS is barely lasting a day for most people which is more than likely in account for the larger screen.
The MAIN reason I've decided to wait, however, is simply because I don't want to be locked into a 2yr contract for the same phone with a bigger screen when the inevitable dual-processor and expanded function phone(s) come out. The N1 does absolutely everything I want/need out of a phone so I'll be waiting until something comes out and totally blows it away and makes it obsolete.
Tenacious Steve said:
..The N1 does absolutely everything I want/need out of a phone so I'll be waiting until something comes out and totally blows it away and makes it obsolete.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too
Hopefully it'll be a new Nexus, made by HTC, with great specs!
I sold my nexus one last week and got a nexus s the same day. I loved my nexus one but my logic for selling my phone is deprecation of the phone when i sell it. Sold the nexus one and dock for 370, not great. So that means I payed $200 for the nexus s. If you are in the market to sell it later you will get less for it. In the next couple of months dual core and 4g is coming out and the value will drop for both phones but i feel that the nexus s will be valued higher. It also seem that the resell market for Galaxy S is bigger then the nexus one, due to the fact that more people know what a Galaxy s phone is.
Some thoughts about the nexus s. The phone seems the same on paper but in actuality its much faster compared the nexus one running gingerbread, this could be that the roms didn't have the drivers. The screen is amazing and i like the look of the nexus s, but miss the dock. NS is a lot lighter in the hand but feels cheap when you're pressing the volume and power buttons. The BIGGEST difference is the responsiveness of the touchscreen.
I have ZERO REGRETS on my purchase of the nexus s.
I have purchased the Nexus S and am still on the fence of whether or not to return it. My previous phone is the Nexus One. The reason that I am on the fence is for the same reason why some people are still trying to decide whether or not to purchase the phone such as there is no led notification, missing sd slot, NFC not really popular at the moment and probably will not be for the next year or two at least in the US, not a dual core phone.
But I will admit it is a nice phone, does have a nice feel, beautiful display, sexy all black face giving it that stealth look, the touchscreen is responsive I don't get all of that wonkiness I used to get with the Nexus one and even with the capacitive touch buttons, those work the way they should. Very responsive in terms of apps seem to respond and open more quickly compared to the N1. It would be nice for google to explain why they chose the phone they chose for there N1 successor, instead of trying to come up with reasons for them.
I have 30 days to decide whether or not to keep the phone. Since I am a T-mobile customer, from as long as I can remember they never really had the hot phones, it was always places like verizon or sprint that had phones that seemed more appealing. And even if t-mobile did end up getting a hot phone it would be like months later after the other networks had that phone for a while ex. razr.
If i had neither an n1 or nexus s and both phones were for sale, I would go for the Nexus S.

[Q] Note 3 / HTC One / Nexus 5

So I happen to have all of these devices right now either in person or on order and am really having trouble deciding which to keep. I use AT&T for all of them. I was wondering, I haven't seen any direct comparisons of these three in particular - so here are the pros of each that I've noted:
Note 3:
Sick screen size
Stylus
Battery life
HTC One:
Best build quality of any phone
Amazing screen
Incredible audio
Nexus 5:
Easiest to mod
Cool feel
Cheap?
Note 3 in particular has massive flaws like all the samsung garbage on it - and I have not yet been able to figure out how to safely mod the stupid AT&T version, which is crap. What are your thoughts on this and which would you stick with?
The Note 3 is easy to remove, so you can get rid of the bloatware. The only thing that sucks is that the bootloader is locked.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk
Pandawg said:
The Note 3 is easy to remove, so you can get rid of the bloatware. The only thing that sucks is that the bootloader is locked.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has been hugely frustrating to me. As much as I like the phone it's a feature that's driving me nuts. I've even though about the Lumia 1520 just to get a sick size/quality screen. If only Windows phone was more competent...
asvalgard said:
This has been hugely frustrating to me. As much as I like the phone it's a feature that's driving me nuts. I've even though about the Lumia 1520 just to get a sick size/quality screen. If only Windows phone was more competent...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The locked bootloader? It's bad, but I've come to like the stock firmware on the phone. There's no law at all, and I just removed the bloatware I don't like with root. J just hope that the bootloader will be unlocked by someone down the road. The battery life and beautiful screen make up for the locked bootloader for me.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk
This is exactly what I'm struggling with. If I hadn't gotten to taste 4.4 on my One and Nexus 5 I probably wouldn't care as much but I KitKat. To make things worse, I got my brother a Note 3 from Christmas so if I get rid of mine he'll be constantly reminding me of it and shaming me. Might have to stick with it though and I'm sure eventually someone will unlock the Bootloader anyway.
Note 3 is superior of the three right now. Bloatware is removable with Titanium Backup and root. Have multiview, gorilla glass 3, sd card slot (up to 64gb), and removable battery. Only thing wrong with it is, it doesn't feel natural in the hand, or you have to use two hands. Maybe its just me.
HTC One has great sound, yes but thats about it, but most of it seems like a gimmick because you have to enable the beats audio. I had one and had to be very careful with it because the phone was painted with anodized aluminium. Regardless of how careful i was, the screen had one little scratch and the paint chipped off. Sold it two days after I got it. Also, some application lagged for some reason.
Nexus 5 was my choice, because of stock and kitkat, but looking at the flaws made me decide to get a note 3. Flaws were, battery, camera, no sd card slot, no removable battery.
Besides, i mod my note 3 to look exactly like a Neuxs 5 with KitKat, with launchers, icons, fonts, status bar, etc.
http://i43.tinypic.com/23udks1.png
Note 3/ HTC One owner. It's a matter of preference and there will be trade offs with any device.
The more lag/stutter free experience - HTC One ( Sense and the One is by far and away the better experience as far as this goes)
Unique software features- Note 3, again by far,over the One and any other phone/phablet
Screen- Toss up, both are exceptional
Build- The One obviously feels sturdy, but I replaced a few of them due to the speakers relentlessly blowing. Still, Samsung puts fake chrome trim on the phones which chips, cracks and dents. The One is better here.
Updates- Both stink. They are trying to make money, plain and simple. That said, neither company will rush to update your phone to the latest and greatest.
Dev support/tinker ability- Samsung and at&t = locked bootloader, this alone is why I just signed with at&t when the Note came out, but will be leaving in a few months. It's unacceptable. One crushes here.
Sound- obviously the One but the speakers are such garbage that I prefer the Note. I use headphones when I wanna hear music anyway
Battery life- The note 3 would win, but there are a lot of people (myself included) that are suffering some sort of wakelock on unrooted notes. Something is crushing my battery and Android OS stays awake 4-5 hours causing my battery to die in 10-11 hours of almost no use. HTC One wins here. It is simply unacceptable to still have apps and bloat causing wakelocks.
Bloat- I was with Sprint on the One so I'll do a combo here. Sprint/One is by far the better choice than Samsung/at&t. Samsung and at&t have forced so much bloat, apps taking up space, things running causing wakelocks..there is just a mess of crap on this phone that does god knows what.
Camera- both are great, both are annoying as well. They take too long to take good pictures. They both have issues focusing at times. When they both work correctly, it's even as far as quality, but Samsung smokes the One in the features category
All that being said. I prefer my Note and sold the HTC One, partly due to the fact that I've rolled with HTC since the Hero but have grown tired of the issues they're having, partly due to the unique software features the Note has. They both have glaring issues. It's a matter of which ones you choose to accept.
Roy073096 said:
Note 3 is superior of the three right now. Bloatware is removable with Titanium Backup and root. Have multiview, gorilla glass 3, sd card slot (up to 64gb), and removable battery. Only thing wrong with it is, it doesn't feel natural in the hand, or you have to use two hands. Maybe its just me.
HTC One has great sound, yes but thats about it, but most of it seems like a gimmick because you have to enable the beats audio. I had one and had to be very careful with it because the phone was painted with anodized aluminium. Regardless of how careful i was, the screen had one little scratch and the paint chipped off. Sold it two days after I got it. Also, some application lagged for some reason.
Nexus 5 was my choice, because of stock and kitkat, but looking at the flaws made me decide to get a note 3. Flaws were, battery, camera, no sd card slot, no removable battery.
Besides, i mod my note 3 to look exactly like a Neuxs 5 with KitKat, with launchers, icons, fonts, status bar, etc.
http://i43.tinypic.com/23udks1.png
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All that being said. It's not just Samsung phones that at&t is locking the bootloader on. The one x had a locked bootloader and I'm pretty sure their htc one does as well as it would follow suite
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using xda app-developers app
It's funny I should stumble across this thread. I'm looking at my Nexus 5 right now, struggling to find a reason not to send it back. I just switched back to my Note 3 and it has been freezing on me for no reason. And I have seriously been considering buying another HTC One because I really liked that phone and regret selling it.
For me, it's like this:
Note 3
Apps/Accessories/Hardware compatibility is best - My fitbit, all new app updates, cases, etc.
Fast
Camera takes great photos and has great features
S Pen
Multi Window
Awkward to use one-handed
HTC One
Speakers are the bomb
Wonderful screen
Fast and fluid all the time
Love Sense as a skin
Camera is fast and has some great features, though not as robust as the Note 3
Good size for one-handed use
Camera does not produce great detail
Slow to charge
Nexus 5
Kitkat
Unlocked Bootloader
Fast and fluid
Great bargain
Camera is iffy. Camera app his horrendous. And I can't find a replacement app that I like.
Battery life has been disappointing
Screen is slightly washed out, especially compared to AMOLED screens and LCD screens like the G2 and HTC One
Speaker is pathetic
My current obsession is a phone that takes fast pictures. The Nexus 5 takes so long to focus and has such a slow shutter that every single picture I take of my dogs is blurry (they're always moving). The Note 3 doesn't have this issue and the HTC One snaps super fast photos as well. Also, the burst mode on the Note and One is great, second only to the iPhone 5s, in my opinion.
I have pretty much decided to send my Nexus 5 back to Google. I was set on replacing it with my Note 3, but then I started to get the random freezes and can't seem to pinpoint the cause. The One is looking mighty tempting right now, especially since I can land one in like-new condition for $300. I never had any problems with my One. I just wasn't thrilled by the photo quality (detail) and newer phones came out that caught my attention. I'm starting to think that I was hasty selling it.

[thoughts] What the S5 needs to do before April 11th to earn my money

Well, THAT happened 10 hours ago........
The launch for the S5 came and my enjoyment faded pretty quickly. You can see from my track record in my signature that I've been a pretty loyal customer of Samsung for quite some time now, and this may be the first Galaxy launch that I won't have a pre-order in the system. Other than stepping away from the Galaxy line to pick up the Atrix 4G, the first mass produced phone with a fingerprint scanner, coincidentally, I've enjoyed only Samsung phones for the last 4 years. The "premium version" of the S5 was supposed to be 5th in line, what with the 20MP camera, metal body, G-Note 3 battery size, 5.25" screen - you've seen it all and read it all, it didn't show up today. Now unless Samsung is about to pull the biggest stunt they've ever pulled, the Unpacked5 event is in the books and we're not getting anything more than what we got today.
Is there any positive that came out of this event? Sure! USB 3.0 is a big thing for me as I have lots of 3.0 gear and want that from my next phone, it's dust and water resistant, cool fingerprint scanner providing it works flawlessly unlike the one on the iThing, updated TouchWiz which (try not to judge) I actually like a little bit, the wearables, the bigger focus on health, better processor, camera, and connectivity, but then comes the let downs, especially for S4 owners. Same 1080p screen at almost the same size, same 2GB of memory, almost the exact same front camera, soon to be the same OS (again, I like TW so I'm sticking it out on 4.3 until the TW 4.4.2 comes out), same plastic body that I don't necessarily mind, but would have appreciated a little change other than just putting dimples in the back cover, and probably worst of all to me, they're offering it in a 16GB format again after what they just did to us who pre-ordered and / or early adopted the S4, sticking us with next to nothing for internal space because they believe everyone has kids and needs to have likely a ton of space dedicated to a kid mode with pre-installed games and crap. I'm single and not looking for that anytime soon!!! It's like they claimed to listen to their customers but only those who are married, have children, want a "modern glam look," whatever the hell that means, and work out enough to bring their phone with them while exercising!
Damn that's a lot of negatives so far. So what can Samsung do between now and launch to earn my money short of releasing their ultra premium version that was supposed to exist but doesn't, and calling this one the S5 Neo? Let's take a look, and please, feel free to help me add to this list!
Ship the phone with an unlocked bootloader - I know, fat chance, right? But if you don't want people complaining about lack of storage, let us kill it off as we see fit! I also know it isn't up to Samsung on this, the carriers are the ones being douchebags about it, but Samsung put their foot down with them previously by stopping them from dictating all the individual revisions when they launched the SIII, making them all the same shape and size, so why can't they force their hand on this in the sake of making even the smallest group of their customers happy - those that truly use the phone for what it was meant for!
Negate the 16GB version - this is obvious, why the hell is this even a thing anymore with Samsung.... just get rid of it if you're not going to slim down this ridiculously large ROM of yours! Ship with the 32GB at minimum and announce the 64GB as well. iThings do this as a standard now, and while iSheep love to keep their music on their device and we have this little thing called external storage and another little thing called Google Music, we don't have to, but seriously, cut the crap and ditch the 16GB model!
Allow us to remove certain features we just aren't going to use, EVER - as I stated already, I don't have kids and don't need a Kids Mode. If you aren't going to let us root the thing AND aren't going to launch it with more than 16GB, let me get rid of the damn Kids Mode. Or the health features. Or anything else I decide useless or unnecessary. When looking at pics of the camera settings on the S5, I'm able to download more features as I see fit - why not make some of this crap downloadable and not don't ship it with the device? Why not make an Aroma-like installer when you first boot it and say "hey, would you like all of this crap or just some of it?" like any PC software does when it installs something - Typical or Custom installation. Sounds like I'm asking for a lot here, but really, I'm asking to not be forced a lot that I really won't use. And before you comment that if I don't need it, don't buy it in the first place, there are so many things I love about my S4 and TouchWiz that I'm not planning to part with in order to have "a phone," my N7 has a purpose and it isn't so I can keep the screen on when I need it just by looking at it. It does great for playing movies on a trip but not for letting me change the channel of my big TV when I want to watch a blockbuster movie....
Ship with at least the S805 processor for crying out loud - if you're not going to blow us away with something new and powerful, at least ship it with the very latest processor this time from Qualcomm. The 800 has been out for months, the 801 is obviously an incremental update over the 800, and the 805 isn't that much better, but at least give us the goods instead of just going along with the same processor found in the N5 and G-Note 3. I don't think we've heard which one for sure will be included, but from what I've read, so far they say it's the 800 or the 801. EDIT - it's the 801, confirmed by Qualcomm....
Include wireless charging in the box - I shouldn't have to say this, wireless charging is now old technology, the SIII had the capability but not the attention or love needed for Samsung to just release the official cover, the S4 cover took 3 months to post online for sale, and with all the competition shipping their phones with it included, why aren't we able to get it without paying $50+ for it? I used a 50% off coupon to get it for $25, but that's $25 more than I should have spent after being let down on a promise that the SIII was supposed to be able to do it on a phone with nearly useless internal storage....
Sell us some legit accessories this time, namely a car dock - I'm always impressed when people recognize me from my review on the only working car dock for the S4 since Samsung decided to screw around with the whole thing and make my Infuse dock useless. It worked on the Skyrocket and SIII, and would have fit the S4 except it wasn't possible to get the thing working properly by charging and outputting dock audio on it, so it's collecting dust in a box right now. Sure, I get it, you want to sell me something new instead of letting me use the same one for my last phone, and that's different than what you are doing (or didn't do?) with the wireless charging cover, but in this situation, you're not even selling me one! The S4 sold tens of millions of devices, did you stop and think that maybe ONE of them would be going in a car and being used for playing music or navigating that owner safely from one place to another?
?
?
?
That's all I got for now, I'm sure we can come up with more and while I highly doubt Samsung is listening to people like me, one of their 200M customers (I'd like to think I counted 4 times for buying 4 iterations of the Galaxy line), there's always a chance someone is listening. I bet they'll listen when they're trying to figure out why the sales figures are going to be monumentally lower this go-round, that's for sure!!!
A note to fanboys of all kinds, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, iThing, etc - let's keep it clean here, please. You haven't heard me bash anyone else here, even Samsung really, so please don't get this thread locked on me. I'm sure you have witty comments like Nokia and HTC have today, with their "Samesung," "Buyers Remose," and even the most original ones like telling me that you're disappointed or this phone is ugly.... As if we haven't seen those comments before. Be original if Samsung isn't, post something relevant to the discussion if you're going to post at all! I don't waste my time on writing this stuff to insult others, so don't do it to insult me. If you were never considering buying it, you don't have any reason to comment on here because nothing you're going to say will come across as helpful to myself or others. If you were considering buying it or even, dare I say switching from another brand, or actually will be buying this phone - let's discuss intelligently your reasons why!
:good:
FM radio..
In Slovenia in past month we have major electric blackdown becouse of mother nature - no internet no nothing.. but FM radio did work.. on my S2 I could still listen what is happening, but on newer device.. bljah.. must have tool which cost them 1 euro cent per device..
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
I agree with all you say. Particularly about wireless charging, and accessories which get launched with fanfare and then never see the light of day. The other thing they could do is to put one of the new gear items in the box too. That would be a good sweetener. Lol.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk
NO KNOX!!! Or forget about Custom ROMs and warranty.
redzion said:
FM radio..
In Slovenia in past month we have major electric blackdown becouse of mother nature - no internet no nothing.. but FM radio did work.. on my S2 I could still listen what is happening, but on newer device.. bljah.. must have tool which cost them 1 euro cent per device..
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
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How do you know it doesn't ?
Two points here:
1. I see you are American, and that in the US the carriers **** in their customers' heads when it comes to freedom. The international S4 has an unlocked bootloader, it has been like that since the original S.
2. The Snapdragon 805 isn't available yet, sadly.
And why isn't 2GB of RAM enough? I have 300+ apps here, 9 accounts syncing and available RAM never goes below 700MB.
I'm going to point something out to everyone here that wants Samsung to get rid of security features such as locked bootloaders or Knox.
We are the minority. Do you Expect Samsung to tailor to us and risk the average consumer's information and safety so people can run an AOSP build or a custom kernel?
Ship the phone with an unlocked bootloader - I know, fat chance, right? But if you don't want people complaining about lack of storage, let us kill it off as we see fit! I also know it isn't up to Samsung on this, the carriers are the ones being douchebags about it, but Samsung put their foot down with them previously by stopping them from dictating all the individual revisions when they launched the SIII, making them all the same shape and size, so why can't they force their hand on this in the sake of making even the smallest group of their customers happy - those that truly use the phone for what it was meant for!
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Click to collapse
While I'm not excusing the US carriers for doing this, but why do you think they try to steer people away from rooting and unlocking the bootloader? People mess up, brick their phone, and then try to do a warranty claim on them. They're protecting their profits, and as a business you cannot blame them for that. Anyone else here would do the same thing to retain profits. And what do you mean "use the phone for what it was meant for?" The phone is meant to be a mobile multimedia cellular device, which in fact still does on the software it ships with no problem.
Negate the 16GB version - this is obvious, why the hell is this even a thing anymore with Samsung.... just get rid of it if you're not going to slim down this ridiculously large ROM of yours! Ship with the 32GB at minimum and announce the 64GB as well. iThings do this as a standard now, and while iSheep love to keep their music on their device and we have this little thing called external storage and another little thing called Google Music, we don't have to, but seriously, cut the crap and ditch the 16GB model!
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Click to collapse
I do agree with this, I don't see too much point of the 16gb version. Still at least gives you a start of 10gb of storage at least.
Allow us to remove certain features we just aren't going to use, EVER - as I stated already, I don't have kids and don't need a Kids Mode. If you aren't going to let us root the thing AND aren't going to launch it with more than 16GB, let me get rid of the damn Kids Mode. Or the health features. Or anything else I decide useless or unnecessary. When looking at pics of the camera settings on the S5, I'm able to download more features as I see fit - why not make some of this crap downloadable and not don't ship it with the device? Why not make an Aroma-like installer when you first boot it and say "hey, would you like all of this crap or just some of it?" like any PC software does when it installs something - Typical or Custom installation. Sounds like I'm asking for a lot here, but really, I'm asking to not be forced a lot that I really won't use. And before you comment that if I don't need it, don't buy it in the first place, there are so many things I love about my S4 and TouchWiz that I'm not planning to part with in order to have "a phone," my N7 has a purpose and it isn't so I can keep the screen on when I need it just by looking at it. It does great for playing movies on a trip but not for letting me change the channel of my big TV when I want to watch a blockbuster movie....
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Click to collapse
You can disable features you don't need. But just because you decide a feature you think is useless or unnecessary, does not translate to everyone else will think this too. I like the kids mode feature, I've got kids and nephews that get my phone somehow all the time.(Anyone with kids can attest to that too! ) I'm sure people will love this feature.
Ship with at least the S805 processor for crying out loud - if you're not going to blow us away with something new and powerful, at least ship it with the very latest processor this time from Qualcomm. The 800 has been out for months, the 801 is obviously an incremental update over the 800, and the 805 isn't that much better, but at least give us the goods instead of just going along with the same processor found in the N5 and G-Note 3. I don't think we've heard which one for sure will be included, but from what I've read, so far they say it's the 800 or the 801.
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This is Qualcomm's area right here, ARM cpus are following the development of x86 cpus. Meaning it's reached a point now where development for ARM cores is slowing down, tremendously. We probably won't see any groundbreaking ARM cpu's come out for maybe at least a year or so now, took x86 cpus years to show good and cost effective performance gains.
Include wireless charging in the box - I shouldn't have to say this, wireless charging is now old technology, the SIII had the capability but not the attention or love needed for Samsung to just release the official cover, the S4 cover took 3 months to post online for sale, and with all the competition shipping their phones with it included, why aren't we able to get it without paying $50+ for it? I used a 50% off coupon to get it for $25, but that's $25 more than I should have spent after being let down on a promise that the SIII was supposed to be able to do it on a phone with nearly useless internal storage....
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Click to collapse
Now you're just being greedy.
Sell us some legit accessories this time, namely a car dock - I'm always impressed when people recognize me from my review on the only working car dock for the S4 since Samsung decided to screw around with the whole thing and make my Infuse dock useless. It worked on the Skyrocket and SIII, and would have fit the S4 except it wasn't possible to get the thing working properly by charging and outputting dock audio on it, so it's collecting dust in a box right now. Sure, I get it, you want to sell me something new instead of letting me use the same one for my last phone, and that's different than what you are doing (or didn't do?) with the wireless charging cover, but in this situation, you're not even selling me one! The S4 sold tens of millions of devices, did you stop and think that maybe ONE of them would be going in a car and being used for playing music or navigating that owner safely from one place to another?
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I do agree with this, but also at the same time there are 100s of other companies making accessories that Samsung does not make.
Samsung is not going to tailor the phone just for one person or a small group, they're doing it for what they believe are the best choices for their devices. Looking at their track record of the Galaxy line up, I'd say they've got it down pretty good.
Why do u need a 2k screen on a 5" device? It eats battery life, it bogs down cpu and gpu performance for something that your eyes can't notice. I cant even see a pixel on my s4.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk
My wishlist for S5 -Premium
1. 5.2" inches screen in body-size of S4. It's not too hard if they look at LG G2.
2. Radio FM, and playable via loudspeaker.
3. Good camera in low light condition.
4. Smaller bezel, by aluminum.
5. QHD display.
6. Better performed in drop-test, maybe
7. Keep removable battery + external SDcard.
8. Snapdragon 805 or Exynos 64bit octa-cores.
9. Only 1 "main" international version, both have LTE-A, 4K video rec etc...
10. Wireless charging included.
11. Ram 3G
12. At least 32 GB internal memory, like Note 3.
13. Fingerprint inside screen.
14. Max brightness at 600nit, like Note3.
15. Flash Xenon for camera and flash led for Camcorder.
16. 120 fps video recording at 1080p
17. Not too heavy. <150g.
18. Clearer audio recording, noise reduction.
19. Stereo sound on louder speaker like HTC One.
20. A better earphone with improved DAC
21. Sapphire glass for screen and camera lens.
22. Dust and water resistant is good, but I hope it will not affect the bezels.
23. Remove Samsung logo in the front and rear. Just Galaxy.
24. Note 3 fake leather still better than this S5C, or aluminum body.
25. Working, interchangeable for S-pen or any stylus pen, docking, etc
26. Front camera 5MP, rear 18MP
27. Hot plugged battery, SIM and microSD card without restart phone.
28. Include an projector like Galaxy Beam
29. USB 3.1
30. Removable and downloadable all bloatware, Knox, gesture...
31. 3000 mAh battery
32. New flat Touchwiz, it's still ugly.
33. Touchwiz fully runnable in ART and compatible with any pixel density.
34. Free lags, especially open the contacts/dialer must be faster.
35. Dual boot Android & WP, maybe triple with Ubuntu or GPE rom.
36. Update firmware at least 24 months, not like i9300.
37. Not too many versions in worldwide.
38. For some sharing features like Galaxy Beam, Samsung should share this app to works on other Android devices, (now we only have Android Beam).
The same for SS smart watch, smartTV....
39. Still support Adobe flash (it's not SS or GG obligation, but I hope it).
40. Improved airview and air gestures in smarter way than before (Example: hover finger on the links help user preview link, not zooming like now). Open the API for all the sensors function and support the developers to create much good app based on them.
dandroid13 said:
Two points here:
1. I see you are American, and that in the US the carriers **** in their customers' heads when it comes to freedom. The international S4 has an unlocked bootloader, it has been like that since the original S.
2. The Snapdragon 805 isn't available yet, sadly.
And why isn't 2GB of RAM enough? I have 300+ apps here, 9 accounts syncing and available RAM never goes below 700MB.
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Click to collapse
When kitkat was being written all the engineers had to use a smart phone with only 512 mb of RAM.
This will be moot tho with TouchWiz which is the most bloated god awful software on Android. 2gb IS enough yet the s4 still suffered from lag.
With the newer processors not being available yet Samsung should have focused on design. They put zero effort into that. This will be their first flop in the galaxy line. And by flop I mean by their standards. It will still sell millions.
Sent from my VS980 4G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
fernando sor said:
When kitkat was being written all the engineers had to use a smart phone with only 512 mb of RAM.
This will be moot tho with TouchWiz which is the most bloated god awful software on Android. 2gb IS enough yet the s4 still suffered from lag.
With the newer processors not being available yet Samsung should have focused on design. They put zero effort into that. This will be their first flop in the galaxy line. And by flop I mean by their standards. It will still sell millions.
Sent from my VS980 4G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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I have minimal lag here, but even Nexus can lag, it's not just TW or Sense.
adichandra said:
Why do u need a 2k screen on a 5" device? It eats battery life, it bogs down cpu and gpu performance for something that your eyes can't notice. I cant even see a pixel on my s4.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
this is so true. people just want a better spec sheet not realizing going above 1080p will actually lower benchmarks particularly with the s800 and 801 being the only SoC available now. To get something you probably wont even notice you will be sacrificing just about everything else performance wise.
---------- Post added at 01:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ----------
dandroid13 said:
I have minimal lag here, but even Nexus can lag, it's not just TW or Sense.
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Come on It was a pretty common bug on the s4. I have a Samsung tab note 10.1 and it lags considerably.
I've had numerous HTC phones over the years and sense has been toned down quite a bit. sense 3.0 was a system draining nightmare.
I really don't think you can compare a straight android ROM to A samsung rom and say with a straight face this makes no difference on performance or lag.
Just compare the size of a nexus 7 rom to any s4 rom.
fernando sor said:
Come on It was a pretty common bug on the s4. I have a Samsung tab note 10.1 and it lags considerably.
I've had numerous HTC phones over the years and sense has been toned down quite a bit. sense 3.0 was a system draining nightmare.
I really don't think you can compare a straight android ROM to A samsung rom and say with a straight face this makes no difference on performance or lag.
Just compare the size of a nexus 7 rom to any s4 rom.
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Sure, the Note 10.1 is slow, but the problem isn't how light or heavy the ROM is, the lag happens because the Java-based Android Runtime isn't a optimized as iOS, for example.
dandroid13 said:
Sure, the Note 10.1 is slow, but the problem isn't how light or heavy the ROM is, the lag happens because the Java-based Android Runtime isn't a optimized as iOS, for example.
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Click to collapse
It's actually dalvik at runtime. Dalvik virtual machine and kitkat is optimized quite well.
When you add a huge amount of code on top of that of course it will change the performance.
Sent from my VS980 4G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
fernando sor said:
It's actually dalvik at runtime. Dalvik virtual machine and kitkat is optimized quite well.
When you add a huge amount of code on top of that of course it will change the performance.
Sent from my VS980 4G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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Sure, but it'll never be as good as iOS or WP, sadly.
Anyway, here's a closer look at the new TW, and, you guys can kill me, but I really like it. http://www.phonearena.com/news/New-...z-what-changed-with-Samsungs-software_id53163
dandroid13 said:
Sure, but it'll never be as good as iOS or WP, sadly.
Anyway, here's a closer look at the new TW, and, you guys can kill me, but I really like it. http://www.phonearena.com/news/New-...z-what-changed-with-Samsungs-software_id53163
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Click to collapse
Actually that's a matter of opinion. My nexus 7 2013 and HTC one run as well as any iOS device I've played with. And they're of course other factors such iOS locked down system, boring home screen, no widgets, tiny screen etc.
Sent from my VS980 4G using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Saw today a tweet from O2. 661 Euro. That is a lot of money. Think I have to pass.
anubius said:
Saw today a tweet from O2. 661 Euro. That is a lot of money. Think I have to pass.
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Damn.

[Q] Have any former Note 3 owners who JUMPed to the Note 4 regretted doing so?

Hey everyone (particularly those I previously interacted with in the - now much less active - Note 3 forum )
My fist post in this forum signifies... pretty much a complete 180 wrt my interest in the Note 4, altering it from "ehh, no thanks" to "I wonder if the Tmo store down the street has any in stock?"
First, my current Note 3: I freaking love it, easily my #1 fav out of the many phones I've owned. It's running Tweaked 3.9, leanKernel 3.11.3 and themed with @cbucz24's B&W Tweaked theme and a sick themed stock Samsung keyboard that he made. Run's like a dream (Antutu benchmarks always in the mid 40k's with an all time high of about 47.5K), Nova Prime, any otherwise heavily customized software-wise (most significant example: I've basically totally altered the stock S pen function via GMD S-pen / no auto Air Command, but launch-able via GMD and significant progress towards my goal of doing literally anything (access obscure settings / direct dial, etc.) just by scribbling a path on the screen. Also, froze flashbar service, replaced with sidebar launchers of Flppr - access pre-configured widgets, divided into categories, from ANY screen via swipe gestures (awesome in general, but particularly useful for "remotes" such as Smart Remote, Yatse, Ultimate Remote...), OmniSnitch (grabbed from the ROM flashed on my "week or so NEW" Note 10.1 2014, T-mo lte variant (p607t, which is actually just a carrier branded P605 - international lte variant, thus completely compatible with p605 ROMs :good, and PIE. Last example (maybe most significant) example, replaced Pen Window, which is rather slow, clunky, and functionally limited AND split window with the far superior XHalo module. Really the only "native" function that I use is handwriting recognition, which IMO works amazingly well). Also, I'm pretty good storage-wise, with the 32GB internal, a 64GB external (must have root app: FolderMount!) AND a few of those tiny USB / USB OTG drives - two of them being USB 3 / 64 GB (but the first Corsair one I got was "misplaced" (read: very likely lost forever) - replaced it with the equivalent Patriot drive which has the fastest transfer speeds I've EVER seen on a flash drive, but via PC USB 3 and phone micro usb 2! Oh, last thing, tons of accessories, most of which incompatible with the Note 4 (ex. cases... so many cases! and a micro USB 3 4 port hub).
So while, having the 'old' JUMP program and not yet using it, it makes more "sense" to trade my Note 3 for a 4, then do the same when this period of "transitional" phone releases passes, and the 64-bit "phone of my dreams" (yes, to confirm, phone ownership CAN affect sleep ) becomes available. However, given my exceptional "fondness" for my N3 & it's extensively customized tweaks, I am somewhat concerned about ditching it for its (currently, at least) less customizable successor.
Keeping my N3 AND getting an N4 really is not an option - I don't really have the cash to buy it straight up, and wouldn't be particularly compelled to if I did. However, having the 'old' JUMP, which I haven't yet used, I feel like, logically, I should go for upgrade 1 of 2 / year, and swap the N3 for a 4, which would be sort of a "transitional" device, until something that I NEED to have released.
SO Note 4 owners (JUMPers... first and last time I'll ever be using that adjective ), where any of you in a similar situation, but decided to go for it anyways? Are you happy to have done so? Any regrets?
Last (any peripheral) question: is anyone aware of the current availability of the N4? Is it typically available in stores yet (particularly in Chicago - the store near me is in Lincoln Park on Clark, if I have any neighbors around here )? Or is the best (fastest) way to JUMP via ordering online (if so, would it be a pre-order and if so, how long of a delay should be expected?) I do know a really cool / helpful guy at the T-mo store (who I talked EXTENSIVELY about root etc., explicitly making sure the new tablet wasn't locked down before buying it, and even straight up asking him if he thought that it would be cool to flash alternative firmware on my new deposit-less AC1900 if I flashed it back to stock before returning it, to which he surprisingly responded "yeah, I'm pretty sure that's fine"!) so he could possibly help me out if availability is still an issue (he also ordered a LTE booster, sent to my house, since I told him I wanted both but was told I could only have one or the other shipped. Paid the deposit for that one, but just got tracking info: delivery date = tomorrow )
So I can / plan to roll by the store to check it out, but just wondering if anyone has bought / ordered one recently and has any info re: current availability.
Really looking forward to discussing / exploring the mod potential for this device with you all! Thanks in advance - mostly hoping to resolve the matters that are making me hesitant to JUMP over to this device and it's MUCH more active discussion :good:
For me, the Note 4 is everything I've ever wanted in a phone (minus dual front facing speakers, but oh well)
I LOVED my Note 3. LOVED it. It was hands down the best device I've ever owned. Until now. I didn't use my JUMP (even though I have JUMP 1.0) kept the Note 3 so I could give it to my friend who would never be able to afford a beastly phone like that.
The Note 4 is the best phone money can buy right now (IMHO). No regrets, and I got it on release day. I baby it and it already has a couple of minor scratches on the aluminum bezel but I could care less. I never dropped it, ever, and I'm ultra careful with my phones (the Note 3 is still flawless, I mean literally looks brand new). So keep that in mind, you will get scratches on the bezel, but honestly even with that, still THE best phone in the world.
That tweaked 3.9 is a GREAT rom, but the note4 is an all around better device. Battery life, camera focus speed, processor speed (once tweaked a little), and the s-pen does function better.
And that fast charger makes anything else obsolete. Charging to 75-90% in 1hr is just crazy.
Screen is pretty nice too :wink:
I was pretty bummed about the rear speaker, and the non wolfson dac, but I guess only a few media people even care about sound quality lol.
If it's a stretch money wise, just skip this iteration, it's improved but not mind blowing
Hey thanks a lot man! Just called the store, and the guy made it pretty clear that online order was the way to go (specifically, they had one white one at 6PM Thurs., and he said it'd likely be gone within 10 mins!) Additionally, with the online JUMP, I have 30 days to give my N3 a :crying: proper goodbye :laugh: )
I'm going to go ahead and find + order a case (slim but protective w/ built in port covers / tempered glass saver. Would welcome recommendations on that :highfive:
Amd4life said:
That tweaked 3.9 is a GREAT rom, but the note4 is an all around better device. Battery life, camera focus speed, processor speed (once tweaked a little), and the s-pen does function better.
And that fast charger makes anything else obsolete. Charging to 75-90% in 1hr is just crazy.
Screen is pretty nice too :wink:
I was pretty bummed about the rear speaker, and the non wolfson dac, but I guess only a few media people even care about sound quality lol.
If it's a stretch money wise, just skip this iteration, it's improved but not mind blowing
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Ah yes, the speaker; meant to address that. Placement / quality of a device's speaker(s) is probably the lowest priority criteria for device selection. By that I mean, if I'm doing anything on the phone where I care about sound quality (media, gaming (occasionally, but not usually), pretty much anything aside from ring / notification tones) I'm going to be connecting either headphones, APTX BT speaker, or even my 7.1 AVR. Any of those is going to produce better sound than even the best built in speakers on any mobile device, for which I would do the same. The lack of the Wolfson DAC is a drag or rather a "wtf sammy".
Situation seems to be that N4 is unquestionably "better" overall than the N3, and I basically have the choice of walking around with one or the other in my pocket, or burning 1/2 JUMP upgrades. Now that development for this phone has picked up, it seems to me that grabbing an N4 vs. holding onto my N3 would be an "emotional rather than logical" decision.
When you get your phone, you will love it. I switched from an AT&T S3 to this T-Mobile N4. A tad pricey, but oooh so worth it. I've wanted a Note phone for years and I finally have one. I'm tempted to root and tweak but worried about tripping Knox and any unforseen warranty hassles.
Anyway, glad you love your N3. Hope the N4 is everything you want it to be.
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Premium HD app
jazzmachine said:
Hey everyone (particularly those I previously interacted with in the - now much less active - Note 3 forum )
My fist post in this forum signifies... pretty much a complete 180 wrt my interest in the Note 4, altering it from "ehh, no thanks" to "I wonder if the Tmo store down the street has any in stock?"
First, my current Note 3: I freaking love it, easily my #1 fav out of the many phones I've owned. It's running Tweaked 3.9, leanKernel 3.11.3 and themed with @cbucz24's B&W Tweaked theme and a sick themed stock Samsung keyboard that he made. Run's like a dream (Antutu benchmarks always in the mid 40k's with an all time high of about 47.5K), Nova Prime, any otherwise heavily customized software-wise (most significant example: I've basically totally altered the stock S pen function via GMD S-pen / no auto Air Command, but launch-able via GMD and significant progress towards my goal of doing literally anything (access obscure settings / direct dial, etc.) just by scribbling a path on the screen. Also, froze flashbar service, replaced with sidebar launchers of Flppr - access pre-configured widgets, divided into categories, from ANY screen via swipe gestures (awesome in general, but particularly useful for "remotes" such as Smart Remote, Yatse, Ultimate Remote...), OmniSnitch (grabbed from the ROM flashed on my "week or so NEW" Note 10.1 2014, T-mo lte variant (p607t, which is actually just a carrier branded P605 - international lte variant, thus completely compatible with p605 ROMs :good, and PIE. Last example (maybe most significant) example, replaced Pen Window, which is rather slow, clunky, and functionally limited AND split window with the far superior XHalo module. Really the only "native" function that I use is handwriting recognition, which IMO works amazingly well). Also, I'm pretty good storage-wise, with the 32GB internal, a 64GB external (must have root app: FolderMount!) AND a few of those tiny USB / USB OTG drives - two of them being USB 3 / 64 GB (but the first Corsair one I got was "misplaced" (read: very likely lost forever) - replaced it with the equivalent Patriot drive which has the fastest transfer speeds I've EVER seen on a flash drive, but via PC USB 3 and phone micro usb 2! Oh, last thing, tons of accessories, most of which incompatible with the Note 4 (ex. cases... so many cases! and a micro USB 3 4 port hub).
So while, having the 'old' JUMP program and not yet using it, it makes more "sense" to trade my Note 3 for a 4, then do the same when this period of "transitional" phone releases passes, and the 64-bit "phone of my dreams" (yes, to confirm, phone ownership CAN affect sleep ) becomes available. However, given my exceptional "fondness" for my N3 & it's extensively customized tweaks, I am somewhat concerned about ditching it for its (currently, at least) less customizable successor.
Keeping my N3 AND getting an N4 really is not an option - I don't really have the cash to buy it straight up, and wouldn't be particularly compelled to if I did. However, having the 'old' JUMP, which I haven't yet used, I feel like, logically, I should go for upgrade 1 of 2 / year, and swap the N3 for a 4, which would be sort of a "transitional" device, until something that I NEED to have released.
SO Note 4 owners (JUMPers... first and last time I'll ever be using that adjective ), where any of you in a similar situation, but decided to go for it anyways? Are you happy to have done so? Any regrets?
Last (any peripheral) question: is anyone aware of the current availability of the N4? Is it typically available in stores yet (particularly in Chicago - the store near me is in Lincoln Park on Clark, if I have any neighbors around here )? Or is the best (fastest) way to JUMP via ordering online (if so, would it be a pre-order and if so, how long of a delay should be expected?) I do know a really cool / helpful guy at the T-mo store (who I talked EXTENSIVELY about root etc., explicitly making sure the new tablet wasn't locked down before buying it, and even straight up asking him if he thought that it would be cool to flash alternative firmware on my new deposit-less AC1900 if I flashed it back to stock before returning it, to which he surprisingly responded "yeah, I'm pretty sure that's fine"!) so he could possibly help me out if availability is still an issue (he also ordered a LTE booster, sent to my house, since I told him I wanted both but was told I could only have one or the other shipped. Paid the deposit for that one, but just got tracking info: delivery date = tomorrow )
So I can / plan to roll by the store to check it out, but just wondering if anyone has bought / ordered one recently and has any info re: current availability.
Really looking forward to discussing / exploring the mod potential for this device with you all! Thanks in advance - mostly hoping to resolve the matters that are making me hesitant to JUMP over to this device and it's MUCH more active discussion :good:
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Cool story bro. So cool I couldnt finish it.
Yup
I thought i was the only one,
The UI feels a bit clunkier And the battery life isnt nearly as good for me as a heavy user i could get almost a full day and a half, on the note 4 i might get barely a day same use.
If i couldve taken the note 3 software multi window UI and put it in the note 4 body it would be the perfect phone.
tmotechsupport said:
I thought i was the only one,
The UI feels a bit clunkier And the battery life isnt nearly as good for me as a heavy user i could get almost a full day and a half, on the note 4 i might get barely a day same use.
If i couldve taken the note 3 software multi window UI and put it in the note 4 body it would be the perfect phone.
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I have to agree. Turned my note 3 on last night to play with it and it's smooth. Still on stock rooted and animation is smoother with less lag.
Battery on my note 4 i would say lasts 15% less. I've only disconnected my phone for 5 hours with 2:15 screen time and I'm already at 55%. I'm losing about an hour total screen time compared to my note 3.
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
Yes, Note 4 is worth the JUMP....
I loved my Note 3, but I love my Note 4 more.
There are only two things that I miss about my Note 3.
Temperature sensor
Humidity sensor
If none of these matter to you, the Note 4 is a no brainer. Even if those things mattered to you (like it matters to me ) the Note 4 is still a no brainer.
Those are great AnTuTu benchmakrs for the Note 3, but the SD800 in the N3 is no comparison to the N4 SD805. If you look in my sig, I've hit 50K+ on stock kernel running FireKatv2.
JUMP on over! :good:

Galaxy Note 4 to OP3T

I have seen numerous mentions of Note 4 owners in the threads of this sub forum mention that they are considering a purchase of a OP3T coming from a Galaxy Note 4. I am one of those individuals that has done this and I'd love to hear other peoples thoughts on why they held on to there Note 4's for so long? And why this particular model of Oneplus has gotten us to consider leaving our expandable storage, removable battery larger screen, etc?
For me, the development was there with the Note 4 (if you got yours early enough to unlock the bootloader and root/rom it up). Now with the death of the Nexus line and the Note 7 fiasco, I was looking for an upgrade that offers great current specs and customizability. I guess you could say that "I settled" (pun intended) on Oneplus for this move. On top of all of that, this will be my first Oneplus device and I like the idea of a reasonable pricing structure that Oneplus provides with it's larger storage option. I personally think that they have remained competitive in the industry and I'll be more than happy to shell out the small amount extra to have these upgrades to the original OP3.
I realize that there is a Note 5 to OP3T thread but it didn't quite match what I've been seeing, so many times in the threads, as far as upgrade popularity. So I wanted to start this thread to get an idea of what other Note 4 owners thought.
I'm going from a Note 3 to a OP3t. I'd been looking nonstop for months for a gently used Note 4 to hold me over until the next note release but I just can't wait that long, and people want $400+ for a used note 4 that's still locked to a carrier. So for $639 I went with the 128gb model. No need for expandable storage at that point, all I ever use the SD on my N3 for is when I flash a rom and want to do a twrp backup. I'll just grab a USB-C flash drive for that and use it when I need it. Don't care about removable batteries either, never once swapped a battery on a smartphone. Besides, with this new dash charge thing, I shouldn't have to anyway, right?
It's still a little pricey, but for an unlocked handset with 128gb storage, and a flagship level processor I think it'll be a good purchase.
Point by point. The screen size I assume it would be roughly the same, But downgrading from 4K to to just FHD would help on the battery life by a large margin. Unless you have specific use for VR and very large screen resolution which most people don't, then stepping back to FHD seem like a batter idea.
Removable battery, I only see two reason for replaceable battery. One is for swapping out battery when you ran out and two is in case of emergency, then ability to fully remove power like you drop a phone in a pond/toilet. At this point in time, and in my experience, these larger new phone get a very good battery life, and many can be remedy via powerbank And ever since I have a mobile phone, I never have water issue. So, I'm willing to take that risk.
Expandable storage, to tell the true I still would prefer to have that option even with the 128GB model. But the fact is life is not perfect, and I can get by w/o it. Digging a little deeper, there are a few things that I considered. First off, you have 128GB option, and if you think about it most people don't need more than that. If you are currently using a 128GB SD card and still not satisfy, then OP3T may not be for you either. Second is speed, most smartphone w/ microSD card slot are never going to be that fast; while many don't need that much speed, it improve thing like game loading. Most apps will not need to store data on the SD but for games, you have a blob(OBB) sitting on the large space and some time on SD card, which can slow things down considerably. Another thing is a simplification, well I view this one as a trade off. As a geek I don't care much whether things goes on internal memory or external SD, as long as I know where everything is and how to back things up. This is not an issue for me. But having just one large storage area does simplify thing for most people, it also means easier to back thing up. Considering the faster NAND means faster transfer speed for backing up stuff out of the phone also.
In term of custom ROMs and stuff, the true is yes there is option to the bootloader unlocked Note 4, but it's never near the level of OnePlus. If you look at CyanogenMod web site, you can see that the most up to date for Note 4 is CM12.1, while even OPO is up to 14. Sure there are other AOSP ROM in the XDA, but at some point you want things to be just stable and at the minimum up to date security patches. This can complicate things if you have to jump from ROM to ROM just to keep the security patch up to date.
Well set your priorities and decide. I obviously own a Note 4, that's why posting in this topic. Going for OP3T will give you better battery life. Significantly faster fingerprint sensor. Probably a little better camera (I am not sure about this camera part, the sensor is pretty small in comparison with Note 4, but its a newer sensor!), Dash charging, which is the best charging technology out there, and Oxygen OS with lots of dev support (though that's for OP3, not T), needless to say almost any skin is better than TW.
What will you lose in the process then? I think video quality, the video samples from OP3 were really average, no fine details! Asking several Samsung users tells me that call quality on OP3 isn't as great! Note 4 has excellent call quality. GPS accuracy is also not as good! There is the touch latency, 65 ms on Note 4 vs 95 on OP3, and then the last thing, the Pentile 1080p display. I couldn't care much about the resolution, but its Pentile, so not 1080p at first place! But if Anand's chart of OP3's screen calibration is right then the saturation and colour accuracy should be much better on the OP3 than Note 4.
That's all. I myself am really torn. My Note 4 is already on sell on eBay. I am torn between Pixel XL and OP3T. While the former's price is unnecessarily huge, OP3T's price is a no brainer. Don't know yet really.
ithehappy said:
But if Anand's chart of OP3's screen calibration is right then the saturation and colour accuracy should be much better on the OP3 than Note 4.
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I did see that article from Anandtech as well, but that option was in developer settings. Do you know if this option was finally in the normal setting and if it is a default now?
someone0 said:
I did see that article from Anandtech as well, but that option was in developer settings. Do you know if this option was finally in the normal setting and if it is a default now?
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It's still under developer settings and it also might not stick after a reboot, got this response after asking the same in OP3 WhatsApp group. That's not cool
Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk
ithehappy said:
It's still under developer settings and it also might not stick after a reboot, got this response after asking the same in OP3 WhatsApp group. That's not cool
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I can only hope the initial stock ROM on 3T have that fixed and be a default, since it will be different (newer) than the OP3 at this moment. From what I see on the reviews, there is some UI changes as well.

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