I am in the process of doing an upgade, I should be getting it in a couple weeks. However, when I was playing around with it at the store I had some issues with it.
1) LTE was a problem with the device, and from poking around these forums, I have noticed that other users are experiencing problems. With the demo device, the One was unable to get LTE / 4G, however the S4 that was sitting almost directly next to it was able to pick up 4G fine. Is this a big issue?
2) Does this phone support tri-band LTE? Since I know Sprint is moving to that (or already has moved to that) that would be ideal.
3) How is battery life in low signal areas for this phone? At home, even though we have an airave this only helps a very small area in the household. So in general, I am bound to be roaming or have 0 bars.
4) Design wise how is this phone? Everything I have heard it is sturdy, and when I was playing with it at the store it felt solid.
5) Any huge faults (other then the possible SIM/LTE Issue) that would be pointed out on this?
6) Do you have to do the HTC-Dev trick to unlock the bootloader? Coming from a S2 there wasn't really any need to do any of that trickery, just flash and be done.
Right now, I am trying to decide against the S4 or the One, and while the S4 has a removable battery and microsd, if the One has 32 GB of storage, that should be plenty for me as long as I can set up Folder Sync, or a tasker profile to sync images and files to my server.
I am not really a huge fan of the S4 from a Touchwiz perspective, and all the new "features" just seem sorta gimmicky to me, granted I have never really tried them but enabling them is just destined for drained battery usage. I have never really had a Google Experience Phone, I have the nexus 7, but that is a tiny bit differentm so I am not sure as to whether flashing the Google Edition Roms would be of any benefit for me.
At this stage, I am just trying to figure out the benefits of one phone over the other (apart from removable battery and microsd card).
Bump, would really appreciate some feedback.
GH0 said:
I am in the process of doing an upgade, I should be getting it in a couple weeks. However, when I was playing around with it at the store I had some issues with it.
1) LTE was a problem with the device, and from poking around these forums, I have noticed that other users are experiencing problems. With the demo device, the One was unable to get LTE / 4G, however the S4 that was sitting almost directly next to it was able to pick up 4G fine. Is this a big issue?
2) Does this phone support tri-band LTE? Since I know Sprint is moving to that (or already has moved to that) that would be ideal.
3) How is battery life in low signal areas for this phone? At home, even though we have an airave this only helps a very small area in the household. So in general, I am bound to be roaming or have 0 bars.
4) Design wise how is this phone? Everything I have heard it is sturdy, and when I was playing with it at the store it felt solid.
5) Any huge faults (other then the possible SIM/LTE Issue) that would be pointed out on this?
6) Do you have to do the HTC-Dev trick to unlock the bootloader? Coming from a S2 there wasn't really any need to do any of that trickery, just flash and be done.
Right now, I am trying to decide against the S4 or the One, and while the S4 has a removable battery and microsd, if the One has 32 GB of storage, that should be plenty for me as long as I can set up Folder Sync, or a tasker profile to sync images and files to my server.
I am not really a huge fan of the S4 from a Touchwiz perspective, and all the new "features" just seem sorta gimmicky to me, granted I have never really tried them but enabling them is just destined for drained battery usage. I have never really had a Google Experience Phone, I have the nexus 7, but that is a tiny bit differentm so I am not sure as to whether flashing the Google Edition Roms would be of any benefit for me.
At this stage, I am just trying to figure out the benefits of one phone over the other (apart from removable battery and microsd card).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't answer 1 or 2 because I don't have LTE where I live but I've been hearing that some people get through like five to six hours on screen time on a single charge but some don't. Design wise, this phone is probably the best looking and feeling handset out right now. It can compare with the iPhone and probably is better. Feels really good. And yes you have to do the HTC Dev thing. I would suggest getting the One over the S4 but that's just me. I got it because I was tired of using TouchWiz and absolutely hated it (came from S2 as well), didn't care if it had a SD card slot or not because 32 GB is plenty like you said and because the phone is just incredible. Feels really good in the hand and Sense 5 is great. Watch review videos on both the One and the S4 to see what they each offer. In a lot, if not all, of the videos I've seen of the HTC One vs S4, the reviewer chooses the One. Its just a really good device. I don't have a lot of first hand experience with it though. Played with it a few times and loved it. My One should be here in a few days and I am really excited
Sent from my Epic 4G Touch using XDA Premium
I'm not in a LTE launched area but I am in an area where LTE is spread all over and let me tell you, this phone struggles to hold LTE when you hit - 115dbm or greater. Where as other devices(my wife's s3 and my Note 2) Will hold onto 4G just fine.. And to keep a good LTE signal I have to practically fornicate with a cell site... If I could do it over again I wouldn't. Other things made me happy though such as the screen, stereo FF speakers, build materials etc...
Sent from my HTCONE using xda premium
My One holds LTE just as good as my S3, guess it depends on how good LTE is in your city. And every review I've seen they always choose the One over the S4. You can't go wrong with this phone.
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4 Beta
The LTE in my area has been pretty fast, and constant, but in some cases it does drop. As stated before, I guess it just matters how good the LTE service is in your area. The phone quality is excellent, but if you weren't going to use a case, the black version of the phone chips off if you were to drop it, leaving little white marks on the otherwise good looking phone. As for battery, mine usually lasts about 8 hours with a good amount of usage (a lot of music, internet, Twitter, texting, Youtube), and usually about 14 hours if I just check everything once in a while.
Still hard to tell for me about lte - it's my first lte phone too. It works well but most people complain it doesn't pick it up as well as others. The recent update sprint pushed seems to have resolved that but I'd look for others to chime I to confirm.
Edit: also there are no triband phones yet. Htc one doesn't support the triband network.
Sent from my HTCONE using xda app-developers app
syed239 said:
I can't answer 1 or 2 because I don't have LTE where I live but I've been hearing that some people get through like five to six hours on screen time on a single charge but some don't. Design wise, this phone is probably the best looking and feeling handset out right now. It can compare with the iPhone and probably is better. Feels really good. And yes you have to do the HTC Dev thing. I would suggest getting the One over the S4 but that's just me. I got it because I was tired of using TouchWiz and absolutely hated it (came from S2 as well), didn't care if it had a SD card slot or not because 32 GB is plenty like you said and because the phone is just incredible. Feels really good in the hand and Sense 5 is great. Watch review videos on both the One and the S4 to see what they each offer. In a lot, if not all, of the videos I've seen of the HTC One vs S4, the reviewer chooses the One. Its just a really good device. I don't have a lot of first hand experience with it though. Played with it a few times and loved it. My One should be here in a few days and I am really excited
Sent from my Epic 4G Touch using XDA Premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I have been reading reviews and watching videos, and so far everyone I have seen is sorta on the fence, or they end up going either way. 32 GB is nice, but, if I accidentally wipe the storage space or something goes wrong with the phone, have that SD Card in there for me to save all my pictures too, is definitely a positive. Same with the removable battery. Because otherwise, you replace the entire thing. I have held the device (albeit with the anti-theft hardware on it that is the sprint store and such). I enjoy the feel, it feels solid, I would just have to wonder how hot it gets, compared to the S4. I know my S2 gets pretty hot at times. From the reviews I read about the camera, they also favor the S4 since the HTC One's algorithms for reducing noise seem to interfere with pictures in broad daylight as well. Which is a definite negative.
BrianBaker said:
I'm not in a LTE launched area but I am in an area where LTE is spread all over and let me tell you, this phone struggles to hold LTE when you hit - 115dbm or greater. Where as other devices(my wife's s3 and my Note 2) Will hold onto 4G just fine.. And to keep a good LTE signal I have to practically fornicate with a cell site... If I could do it over again I wouldn't. Other things made me happy though such as the screen, stereo FF speakers, build materials etc...
Sent from my HTCONE using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the dual forward facing speakers are a definite plus. It does indeed make the sound so much stronger/better. Like I mentioned above, the build felt solid in my hand.
McCullyCullen said:
The LTE in my area has been pretty fast, and constant, but in some cases it does drop. As stated before, I guess it just matters how good the LTE service is in your area. The phone quality is excellent, but if you weren't going to use a case, the black version of the phone chips off if you were to drop it, leaving little white marks on the otherwise good looking phone. As for battery, mine usually lasts about 8 hours with a good amount of usage (a lot of music, internet, Twitter, texting, Youtube), and usually about 14 hours if I just check everything once in a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would be using a case, definitely. What is your average signal area? Full bars, medium signal strength, or low? I personally live in a low signal area at home, and at school I had 5 bars, though, I don't know if they have LTE there.
gk1984 said:
Still hard to tell for me about lte - it's my first lte phone too. It works well but most people complain it doesn't pick it up as well as others. The recent update sprint pushed seems to have resolved that but I'd look for others to chime I to confirm.
Edit: also there are no triband phones yet. Htc one doesn't support the triband network.
Sent from my HTCONE using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, thanks for confirming that. I was hoping they would have supported it considering they are going to be moving forward with tri-band lte.
On another note, has anyone used the Zoe feature? Is it all that nice or is it more or less just really stupid? When I was talking to the sales rep, he was like "Yeah, I use the zoe feature all the time with my kids" and to be honest, I think he was just trying to sell the HTC one up. Does anyone know if there are applications developed by a third party that perform a similar function?
I know this may be out of the question, but have you considered t-mobile?
Their phone is also unbranded, but it is international, GSM, gets more support from developers, uses T-Mobile's blazing fast HSDPA+ (and soon, LTE), and should cost about the same...
Zoe is nice. But not for those who use 4.1.2. It stores 20 pictures and one 3 second video. The 4.2 update fixes that, saving only 1 picture and 1 video. You can still extract your stuff though.
For me, the 32 Gb is enough. I load this thing up with huge games and I take a lot if HD video, but I always transfer it to my HDD. If you are using this on vacation, I recommend using OTG. That way you can transfer all your pictures to the flash drives.
Battery life is subpar in my opinion. Not what I would expect from a "comeback" phone. I am never able to get more than 10 hours or so of normal use. However, the custom ROMs in here apparently are way more efficient and there are people getting like 60 hours of use.
The phone gets hot. Like 101 degrees Fahrenheit hot. And you feel it. Because the entire back if the phone is like a giant heatsink. But that's better than the S4. I'm sure it gets just as hot, but cooks the hardware instead letting the heat out.
Related
Ok so right now am looking for a phone to buy.
And had the droid x
And droid charge.
So my question is would anybody recommend the d3?
And how is the development for the d3 look in the future?
I heard about motorola unlocking the bootloader but when the day comes, will they only provide it with the new phones? Or would it be like an update?
Absolutely would recommend!
I wholeheartedly recommend the D3 - especially if you are looking for a physical keyboard.
Development is well under way and there are now at least 2 full working ROMs. I've tried both Steel Droid and Monster and both are great - i find monster to be faster and thats my preference.
When I first got the phone, I was pretty bummed that the locked bootloader had put a huge damper on development. Ever since root has been acheived, however, things have been much better and you could not pry my D3 from my cold dead hands.
I hear that Blur is much better than previous iterations, but I use launcher pro so I don't use blur at all.
heres a link to the ROM, Mods and Themes thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1289611
As much as I like my D3, I would not recommend it to anyone looking to get a new phone. unless you absolutely need a keyboard, I would wait for either the Droid Razr or Galaxy Nexus. Both will have better hardware and FAR better screens and will be LTE.
I got a D3 yesterday, after having the D1 the last two years. After about 20 hours using it, I love it. I really dig how fast it is, and the larger screen is nice too.
As soon as I got it home, I rooted it and ran the scripts to remove the VZW apps. I really don't see a need to flash a ROM since this D3 runs so smoothly already. I'd like to edit some PNG files here and there, and that will probably be about it for me. I remember the constant flashing of ROM's, SBF files, and themes on my D1. This time around, I'm really not looking forward to that. It feels to me like VZW and Motorola did a great job with the device as is once you skim off the bloatware.
Like SrulDog, I switched to LP immediately. I've been using LP since about the time it was released, so I am very comfortable with it. It runs great on the D3 too.
I say go for it. I don't know how it compares to the Droids you have owned, but I know it is much better than the D1.
-Mike
kishin14 said:
As much as I like my D3, I would not recommend it to anyone looking to get a new phone. unless you absolutely need a keyboard, I would wait for either the Droid Razr or Galaxy Nexus. Both will have better hardware and FAR better screens and will be LTE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure the screen looks crap sometimes. But I'm standing in direct sunlight in 100 degree weather right now and I can see every detail on it. Try that on an AMOLED.
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium
I have had this phone for a couple weeks and I am enjoying it. I had an OG Droid that the screen crapped out on me so this was nice because it works! I am used to the hardware keyboard on a Blackberry Tour/Bold 9650 but that's personal preference. I am getting used to this one though and I can fly on it so I guess it's pretty good for a keyboard.
A couple things I have done are root, freeze a few apps like VCast and run Autokiller at Strict, and the phone is as smooth as butter now. It has the same hardware as the Bionic really so I mean it's as high end as you can get. If you want 4G then as mentioned you should wait, but I have been getting great 3G speeds and yes I have to wait for the Market apps to download a little but it's a lot faster than it has been in the past with my OG Droid.
Well 4g isent really a biggy for me.
More like.batterry life and great rom features really
Androidsims said:
Sure the screen looks crap sometimes. But I'm standing in direct sunlight in 100 degree weather right now and I can see every detail on it. Try that on an AMOLED.
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
/droid3
Great responses here! This is why I love XDA! To answer the question…yes, I would definitely recommend getting a DVD for all the reasons given above. Dev work is going well, CM7 is on the way, and we MAY have an AOSP rom by the weekend (permissions to port pending). The physical keyboard is outstanding, and the screen is good. Even though colors are a bit washed out, being able to view the screen in direct sunlight, with no issues, is a massive bonus. If you don't need the keyboard, and can wait a little while, I would jump all over the Nexus Prime/ galaxy Nexus/ whatever they're calling that 4.65" piece of sexiness! Either way, you'll end up satisfied imo.
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium
The biggest bugger for me is the lack of RAM. Phone would have been a whole lot better if it had 1GB ram instead 512MB only. The screen is a letdown IMO, but indeed is great in the sun and also better on the battery.
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk
Aside from the occasional issues from being in Australia, I must say I recommend the Droid 3. It's excellent!
I still fail to see what the lack of ram is holding us back from. But I've already convinced pne person to buy this phone, and they text me damn near everyday to thank me.
sent from my MONSTERDroid3 from the XDA app
Two years ago the Milestone was an awesome terminal for its time.
Nice design, perfect size, one of the best display ever seen, incredibly good audio quality and decent CPU power.
The only drawbacks were the horrible battery life, the cheap keyboard and the crap camera.
The D3, although can't be considered a bad phone, is the shadow of what the MS1 was.
The performances (I mean the real ones, not the benchmarks) aren't on par with one years old phones, the crap camera and the poor battery life are still there, the keyboard is improved but is still built like a toy, while the phone grown more than the display, the display went from the best available to the worst ever seen, the signal sensitivity went from the top to the "below the average". The audio quality, while better than the HTC phones is not on par with the motorola ancestors.
As I already said, my Desire Z (aka G2) was a better phone in any area, excluding the audio level and the lack of the numeric ROW.
From my point of view was a boring phone, everything worked from the beginning, good battery life, great photos, super stable system, good keyboard, and fantastic tethering capabilities.
The display was also good, not as the one on the Milestone 1, but light years better than the Droid 3's one.
All in all I suggest to buy the D3 only if you can get a very good deal.
If you like a ready to go smartphone, a DZ/G2 is still a way better choice, especially considering its today average price.
gravenimage said:
I still fail to see what the lack of ram is holding us back from.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
x2.
i think people come from older phones and get hung up on the numbers when with a better processor and other amenities a 'low' RAM really isn't a factor and can actually make the phone faster with everything cached and saved to the system memory. I don't even check the RAM since i've never had an issue with slow or choppy speed.
Also i go a whole day with my phone and end with 30% battery at the end of the day. i use it heavy while im out, not as much when home from work but even then i come home with 50-40% battery. I'm not sure what you guys are doing to get poor battery life.
kern417 said:
x2.
I'm not sure what you guys are doing to get poor battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Usually just using it on modern networks.
The motorola basebands are usually poor (especially on the erly releases), and the power drain has a lot of variation depending on the generation and the make of the BTS/node-b, whatever.
Just for example when I got the milestone 1, with the initial firmware tha battery lasted less than six hour with a vodafone SIM, and almost a day with a three SIM.
The Solutor said:
Usually just using it on modern networks.
The motorola basebands are usually poor (especially on the erly releases), and the power drain has a lot of variation depending on the generation and the make of the BTS/node-b, whatever.
Just for example when I got the milestone 1, with the initial firmware tha battery lasted less than six hour with a vodafone SIM, and almost a day with a three SIM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Idk I hear people on Verizon say the same thing and we get pretty good service just about everywhere. sure at my old job where I was tucked in the basement my phone would die quickly but I couldnt blame that on the phone or the software, like you said it's the radio trying to get signal. I think it more depends on the user and how they use the phone/what services they run.
I had installed Juice Defender originally because i thought it would increase battery life, but i turn my screen on and off so much that it actually drained more battery from turning data off and on all the time, so now i only use it to automatically enable wifi when i'm home and turn off data while i'm asleep. maybe something like that could help you out?
All in all I think the D3 is one of the best Android options out. Plus i'm petty and like the fact that not everyone around here has one since it didn't seem to get a bunch of publicity...people still ask me 'What phone is that???"
kern417 said:
I had installed Juice Defender originally because i thought it would increase battery life, but i turn my screen on and off so much that it actually drained more battery from turning data off and on all the time, so now i only use it to automatically enable wifi when i'm home and turn off data while i'm asleep. maybe something like that could help you out?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I bought the MS1 "wi sync plus" was the program that saved the ms1 form a jump out of the window.
Btw i never tried any wi sync+ clone, like juice defender.
I'm about to purchased D3 today. Too bad it's hard to find one here. Already ask the seller to check with the supplier if there is any. I only found Motorola Atrix at one single shop here.
This is definitely my choice right now. In my opinion, 512MB RAM is enough for a dual core 1 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 SoC processor. PowerVR SGX540 is just nice, too bad that it only support OpenGL 2.0 and not DirectX as in Playstation Vita with PowerVR SGX543.
QWERTY keyboard has improved a lot this time. It had HDMI Type-D, Physical Button for Camera & Sound Volume & Micro-USB. I really hope it will get ICS update when it release and capable of USB Host. Another thing is that Motorola had been bought by Google, I believe Motorola will have latest update every time new Android version released. I hope so
One thing that make me stay away from Samsung Galaxy S2 is that it had one single port Micro USB for everything(HDMI through MHL, USB data, USB Charging, USB Host)
If i use HDMI output, then I cannot use USB Host at the same time. I wonder if the USB Host adapter connected to USB Hub, can it handle and recognize multiple device such as keyboard, mouse,game controller,USB Pendrive etc?
Yeah, but the way I understand it, even the phones that have 1gb of RAM right now (Atrix, Bionic) dont really have 1gb because 512mb is locked to be used with Webtop. And so far as I have been able to find, no other phone has more than 512mb right now. Can anyone confirm?
This mattered to me because I have an Atrix right now on AT&T and I absolutely love the phone, but can't take the ****ty service everywhere anymore, have to switch to Verizon. I had basically three phones I was looking at in the Amazon penny sale, D3, Bionic and the new Samsung qwerty, Supernova or something. So, if the above is right, the D3 I'm getting is essentially the same phone as my Atrix now without Webtop (don't care) or 4g (not here for years, boucou wifi) but with a physical kb, which actually makes it way better. I actually really, really like Gingerblur, and if it's slow I dig Launcherpro, so I should be good, yeah?
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
This. Coming from an Atrix getting HDMI mirroring will be a big deal to me; I didn't buy any docks and haven't rooted or reflashed other than official 2.3 update, so the only thing I ever get over HDMI is the media player interface. Which is cool, but I want something else.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
For those of you who have purchased the Vivid, any regrets? Why?
None so far for me. I switched from an Inspire and it is a nice improvement in all areas except for development, for now at least.
The screen and improved camera were enough to make it an easy decision for me to switch.
I exchanged from the SGS2 to the Vivid. Wasn't sure which LTE device I wanted. I went with the qHD display because I liked it more so than the SA+. The one thing I regret at the moment is the lack of development so far. The Skyrocket being so close to T-Mobile's version is off to a great start in that department. I had an Atrix before, so I'm used to waiting anyway. With other carriers releasing HTC devices with 1.5ghz makes me feel like there will be a new HTC LTE device being rolled out shortly.
none yet.
I broke the screen on my Dell Streak back in March.
Heard about the HTC Holiday 2 days later.
Waited months for it to come to the US... all the while using a phone with a broken screen.
Became upgrade eligible in August...
I finally gave up waiting and bought the SGSII...
12 hours later (no, i'm not joking.) AT&T announced the Vivid(Holiday)...
I kept the SGSII for a week, seeing if it's annoying over-saturation and ultra light weight would grow on me...
Bought the Vivid on Launch Day.
---------- Post added at 01:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:35 PM ----------
GTTG_Atomik said:
With other carriers releasing HTC devices with 1.5ghz makes me feel like there will be a new HTC LTE device being rolled out shortly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't worry about it...
It appears our phone has the 1.5 in it as well, just underclocked to save battery life.
See Here
Skyrocket
PROCESSOR
Manufacturer: Qualcomm
Model: APQ 8060
Clock speed: 1.5 GHz
Number of cores: 2
Vivid
PROCESSOR
Manufacturer: Qualcomm
Model: APQ 8060
Clock speed: 1.2 GHz
Number of cores: 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC has done that before, underclock to save battery.
Nothing so far, everything work as expected, Wifi, GPS, call quality is great. I like the weight on the thing, don't really like litght phones, it's just me.
Sent from my HTC Vivid via Tapatalk
i switched from the iphone 4 and im kinda wanting to go back to it, but i think its just that im not use to android and im gonna give it time. the phone though i like a lot, its the browser and mail apps that bug me.
I wholeheartedly regret my decision, for now anyways....see the data connection problems thread.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk
This year I've had iPhone 4, inspire, galaxy SII and now the vivid.Every phone has its issues just be patient when they get a perm root and devs get on it , its going to be amazing.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
None, somehow the Vivid feels more complete for me as a phone, maybe i am one of those few who love sense. i dont really care much of development, to me the phone works
Switch from crappy since launch day,love the sense. Always wanted a HTC,and it's as good as expected.
As for development,it's only out for a week. HTC is known to be the fastest mgf to release update,no worry. Not to mention HTC already already announce we will have ICS January.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using XDA App
Yeah I have to say I love this phone! Came from an atrixand wow, what an improvement. I know we get lower benchmarks but honestly its way better IMO, fast UI and smoother... Can't wait for Roms oh baby
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
A benchmark to make ppl happy
Also battery life
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
The phone's great for me so far. The only regret I have is the audio quality recorded from the camcorder, it's bad... I thought I'd be able to make it sound better by turning stereo recording off like I did on my Sensation, but unfortunately I was wrong. Hopefully this will be fixed in the future by HTC or developers. :l
So far I love the phone. My only complaint is the less than stellar battery life, but everything else is good, and my battery life seems to be getting better now that it's gone through a few charge cycles & I'm starting to return to using it as a normal phone and not a new gadget! I don't seem to have any of the connectivity problem others complain about, but I'm pretty sure at this point that's a network thing, because the Skyrocket experiences the same issues sometimes. The screen is nice and bright as far as I'm concerned (dare I say it's rather vivid?), and I like the qHD resolution. I think the speaker's plenty loud enough & call quality's pretty good. And overall I'm just a fan of HTC's Sense over Samsung's TouchWiz. Now if only we could manage to unlock the bootloader!
bjg222 said:
So far I love the phone. My only complaint is the less than stellar battery life, but everything else is good, and my battery life seems to be getting better now that it's gone through a few charge cycles & I'm starting to return to using it as a normal phone and not a new gadget! I don't seem to have any of the connectivity problem others complain about, but I'm pretty sure at this point that's a network thing, because the Skyrocket experiences the same issues sometimes. The screen is nice and bright as far as I'm concerned (dare I say it's rather vivid?), and I like the qHD resolution. I think the speaker's plenty loud enough & call quality's pretty good. And overall I'm just a fan of HTC's Sense over Samsung's TouchWiz. Now if only we could manage to unlock the bootloader!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep... what he said! Word for word, that's exactly how I feel about the phone too. Thanks for typing that up for me
SnoopHogg said:
Yep... what he said! Word for word, that's exactly how I feel about the phone too. Thanks for typing that up for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, glad I could save your fingers some effort!
Coming from a Tilt 2, this phone is amazing! No more worrying about running out of memory. No more watching the battery guage go from 100% to 70% just by sitting on my nightstand overnight! No more typing and watching the letters show up on the screen 5 seconds later! Also, I love the qHD screen.
For my first Android phone, I think I made a wise choice!
I have no regrets about the phone, but getting angrier by the day about the bootloader. Seems absurd that htcdev doesn't have the unlock tool on day 1, let alone day 10, especially since its brother models are up there. Grumble, grumble...
I went to the Vivid from my trusty Inspire. The Vivid doesn't seem to be as sturdy as the Inspire, but still a nice phone. The 1.2 GHz dual core proc keeps everything running slick and smooth, but all that power sure generates some heat! This thing gets super hot when I run GPS, Bluetooth Audio, and other stuff at the same time. As soon as this thing gets an AOSP rom... it will be great!
-TH
I regret getting this phone, but I couldn't tell you a better option it's so hard to tell with phones without living with one for a week beforehand, and I don't have that luxury. I am displeased with some things within this phone to the point where I would move if I was given the option. I look at other phones and really I couldn't tell if I would actually like them once I had them.
If I could get an android from Telstra with a full slide out keyboard, that wasn't a low/mid range 450Mhtz snooze fest, I would jump ship so very quickly, I'm a fan of physical keyboards. Next time around though I think my main guiding factor will be stock android (ie a Nexus of some variety, or a phone that gets stock android asap)
Pro's
1. Camera is pretty nice, microphone is rubbish for vid, but the picture quality is very nice
2. Battery is pretty good under ICS, no android has awesome battery, but this I am finding pleasantly surprising.
3. Lots of internal space for apps and media
4. microSD card slot.
5. LTE, in Australia this is the only LTE handset currently available.
6. MHL compatibility is pretty nice with video output to HDMI via the adaptor.
7. Cheap accessories from ebay, covers and stuff are common, they are however unheard-of in shops in Australia, cant even get a screen protector or a cover from Telstra themselves, and they offer no solution beyond ebay
Con's
1. This is the first "sense" android I have used long term, and I gave it a good run but I hate sense so very much, and the ICS update to sense 3.6 made sense worse for me, sure its lighter and faster now, but features I want are now gone. I came from mostly using GB MIUI on a HTC HD2 to this phone with sense, and sense is just so far behind MIUI it's not even funny, sense feels like winmo 6.5, I was so disappointed.
2. Due to many reasons, not necessarily the handsets fault, the development options and ROM selection is quite limited, I came from a HTC HD2, which could run anything under the sun, and had developers coming out of the wazoo, even supported dual-booting and running ROM's from the SD card, including full desktop operating systems, I miss that hack-ability of the HD2.
3. The back cover falls off all the damn time, I can't get the damn thing to stick. Even if under another cover, it slides up and interferes with the speaker and the flash/lens of the camera, all of a sudden my photos are darker and I'll be like, wait not again, YES THE DAMNED BACK COVER AGAIN! This is a retarded design.
4. HTC's version of exchange email support is rubbish, the stock android app is miles ahead of it, I don't know why they feel they need to rewrite it because they replace awesome with mediocre.
5. USB mounting of the drives are hit and miss, sometimes both volumes don't mount, or none mount, other times they are good for 50 disconnection/reconnection in a row.
6. on the stock OTA update for ICS, issues with the screen remaining dull/not adjusting properly and all of the missing options that GB had are driving me nuts.
7. if I roll back to GB and attach my phone to exchange using the same account, I can install APK's still, under ICS with the same account, the security option is hidden from me... I can no longer install APK's under ICS.
8. whilst streaming music to my A2DP car adapter, I cannot find any way to get the email notifications to NOT interfere with the music, even if I remove all notifications it still makes the music "skip" slightly when an email comes in... this is frustrating, thought I feel it is an ICS issue as this wasn't a problem with GB.
Just my experience, if someone offered to swap a galaxy nexus I'd probably jump at the opportunity, and I'm kicking myself that I didn't take it (it was an option available at the time I needed a new phone).
So I'm finally getting around to moving on. As much as I love my Nexus One, I'm in need of a new phone and with the deals coming up I don't know what to get. Being a "even more plus customer" (or whatever they call it now) I don't get those nice phone discounts so everything is relatively expensive. I have to buy it at full price
Today I saw the Galaxy Nexus was on sale for $400 which is really tempting. I know how great a phone it is, but its a little on the big side for me (ha). Then I saw Tmo's $100 trade in value and thought about using that to get a One S for $500.
The things that keep me away from the One S are that there is no removable battery, the possibility of bugs on the first release, and a locked boot loader. But it's such a beautiful device with an amazing camera that it's hard to resist. Money isn't really a big deal, but its a factor I'm considering. I could do a bit more with that $100.
Anyone else that has moved on, what made you switch?
Any recommendations about which phone to get or input in general would be great!
TL;DR: Need new phone, Galaxy Nexus or One S?
(not sure if this is in the right section, hope it is..)
no removable battery is a stopper for me
did you handle the dummy or do you have a working one where you are. the dummy was alot longer than wide. kinda like the n1 but an inch longer, or so it looked and felt. i didn't like it.
why not wait a couple weeks and see about the ssg3
rugmankc said:
no removable battery is a stopper for me
did you handle the dummy or do you have a working one where you are. the dummy was alot longer than wide. kinda like the n1 but an inch longer, or so it looked and felt. i didn't like it.
why not wait a couple weeks and see about the ssg3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used a dummy, I liked how it felt, but you brought up a good point. I should probably try the real thing.
I was considering the S3 but I'm concerned it's gonna take longer than I'd like to get to the U.S. and be too expensive. The deals to me were the reason I wanted to buy a new phone. Are you considering the S3?
I just came from a nexus one and went with the gnex. I absolutely love it. Removable battery and it being a nexus are the winning factors to me. Being a nexus and able to type 6 or so lines of text to flash the stock image and root with files straight from google are big factors for me. The phone is smooth as hell. The other ones will be tainted with sense and Samsung garbage.it is quite wide but I'm getting used to it quickly, after two days I can just about use the phone fully with one hand.
i am looking at the ssg3 or galaxy note, but fed up with tmo slow speeds in my area, Dayton Oh, and still stuck on a 2 year contract. I get .5 to 2mb most of the time. My wishes are dl speed at +5mb minimum, good signal strength at my house and work, 4.5 inch screen or bigger. I will root for apps and nandroid but may not continue flashing as these new phones have it all now--for me at least--
I posted on another thread getting 10-13mb dl with gnex on verizon at store, i know in two years most carriers will be lte capable, so the speeds are coming
yeah, i noticed a little bit of a service bump with the hspda+ on att in some spots in my area getting about 6mb down 2mb up where it used to be 3mb max on the n1. im perfectly fine with that amount of bandwidth, i dont need my phone to have the same service level of throughput as my home internet and chew through my battery. i wish the carriers could improve on the response time / ping now, who cares about bandwidth, its all marketing hype. give me a 22ms ping with 3mb down, not 300ms ping with 15mb...
those speeds would be acceptable to me for now, as in two more years we may see perfection on smartphones for most of us. as i have time maybe someone in the dayton area will get the unlocked version and post tmobile speeds here--
If you're fond of plain Android or CM - get Galaxy Nexus.
If you're one of those who flash Sense/MIUI on your N1 for functionality, and prefer it over plain Android - get One S.
There was already such a thread that I participated in, you can find my opinion there. Personally I can't stand plain Android for the reasons I laid out many times, and dislike ICS design.
Jack_R1 said:
If you're fond of plain Android or CM - get Galaxy Nexus.
If you're one of those who flash Sense/MIUI on your N1 for functionality, and prefer it over plain Android - get One S.
There was already such a thread that I participated in, you can find my opinion there. Personally I can't stand plain Android for the reasons I laid out many times, and dislike ICS design.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I found your thread. You bring up a good point about the development, but I feel either way I'll be okay. I do like my stock ICS, but I'm curious to see how the new sense is, maybe give it a chance. Although, I saw a development of Sense, Blur, and Touchwiz ports over in the Galaxy Nexus form. Made me think twice...
I tried to go to the t-mobile store and use a One S today, but they were closed by the time I got there D: Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on one soon.
One S is better then GNex in most ways but development. Built quality is amazing, screen is very nice, camera and camera app are also super. but right now you just cant do much with the phone besides running Sense....there are no 100% functioning ROMs or any mods YET.
I say screen quality is better on One S in terms of colors, but Gnex is very sharp and resolution is 720p
I have One S and thinking about trading for Gnex because I just hate sitting on stock ROM and waiting....but I am not 100% sure yet
The is just one flaw in One S design, the cool notification light is very cool, but its not visible from the sides.
/nod.
Just handed back the OneS. Until there's some decent Roms, the existing Sense stuff is very annoying. The camera on it is VERY impressive, build quality great too. Screen, same brightness as Nexus One (ie, very clear), but not /that/ bump up in rez. When there's some decent roms for it, I'd jump in and enjoy it, but for now, there's a lot that'll annoy you.
I've been vaguely looking at new phones for the past few months. I currently have a Nexus One which I got used last July and I love it,. but I'm looking for something different. I'd like to have something dual-core and with a higher-resolution screen than my Nexus One. I had been looking at the Atrix or Sensation (with the Sensation, I'd get no AT&T 3G), but they're both dual-core and with qHD screens. Then, a few days ago, I was browsing around eBay and I was shocked to see the prices of the Vivid going for around the prices of the Atrix and Sensation. Out of the three phones, I feel that the Vivid is my best choice. It's the newest, it has LTE, and it has ICS (as does the Sensation, IIRC). I feel like the Vivid has flown under the radar for half a year. It was a flagship-worthy phone on AT&T that was overshadowed by the Galaxy S II and iPhone 4s.
I don't plan on buying anything now (I'm in the process of building a new PC), but I'd like to get something in the next few months. I do have a few questions about the Vivid, however.
I have a standard AT&T 3G SIM card with the 200 MB data plan. Will I need a new SIM for 4G (either HSPA+ or LTE)? I've read that you can use old 3G SIMs but you need to change some APNs to access normal UTMS 3G.
Is there a data on/off toggle on stock Sense 3.6? With my Nexus One, stock Gingerbread has a setting in Wireless and Networks > Mobile Networks > Data enabled which totally toggles data on or off. To save data use and battery life, I only turn on data when I need to use it. Otherwise, I'm on WiFi or not connected to anything at all.
Finally, how is battery life? I've read a lot about how bad the Vivid's battery life is. With my normal usage, I can easily get at least two day's use out of my Nexus One with some life to spare. Could I get something similar out of the Vivid if I turn off all data or WiFi when I'm not using them?
Finally, how is ICS on the Vivid? How much AT&T bloatware is present? My past two Android phones have run stock Android (Nexus One and G1) so I'm not used to bloatware and custom skins. From the little I've used and seen from Sense, I believe that is the most useable of the third-party Android skins, I'm just concerned about the restrictions and crap that AT&T may have put into it.
I think this asks everything, but I'm sure I'll think of more down the line. Thanks!
beanboy89 said:
I've been vaguely looking at new phones for the past few months. I currently have a Nexus One which I got used last July and I love it,. but I'm looking for something different. I'd like to have something dual-core and with a higher-resolution screen than my Nexus One. I had been looking at the Atrix or Sensation (with the Sensation, I'd get no AT&T 3G), but they're both dual-core and with qHD screens. Then, a few days ago, I was browsing around eBay and I was shocked to see the prices of the Vivid going for around the prices of the Atrix and Sensation. Out of the three phones, I feel that the Vivid is my best choice. It's the newest, it has LTE, and it has ICS (as does the Sensation, IIRC). I feel like the Vivid has flown under the radar for half a year. It was a flagship-worthy phone on AT&T that was overshadowed by the Galaxy S II and iPhone 4s.
I don't plan on buying anything now (I'm in the process of building a new PC), but I'd like to get something in the next few months. I do have a few questions about the Vivid, however.
I have a standard AT&T 3G SIM card with the 200 MB data plan. Will I need a new SIM for 4G (either HSPA+ or LTE)? I've read that you can use old 3G SIMs but you need to change some APNs to access normal UTMS 3G.
Is there a data on/off toggle on stock Sense 3.6? With my Nexus One, stock Gingerbread has a setting in Wireless and Networks > Mobile Networks > Data enabled which totally toggles data on or off. To save data use and battery life, I only turn on data when I need to use it. Otherwise, I'm on WiFi or not connected to anything at all.
Finally, how is battery life? I've read a lot about how bad the Vivid's battery life is. With my normal usage, I can easily get at least two day's use out of my Nexus One with some life to spare. Could I get something similar out of the Vivid if I turn off all data or WiFi when I'm not using them?
Finally, how is ICS on the Vivid? How much AT&T bloatware is present? My past two Android phones have run stock Android (Nexus One and G1) so I'm not used to bloatware and custom skins. From the little I've used and seen from Sense, I believe that is the most useable of the third-party Android skins, I'm just concerned about the restrictions and crap that AT&T may have put into it.
I think this asks everything, but I'm sure I'll think of more down the line. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's an amazing phone. LTE speeds while maybe a bit much for the avg user are phenomenal (at least in my area). Battery life is bad if you leave data on constantly, but if as you said you turn it off when not using it it's actually pretty good.
You will have to go into an AT&T store to get the LTE sim and have them turn on LTE for your phone, but they don't charge you for it and there's no extra charges for LTE.
ICS is pretty amazing. Pretty damn smooth and very beautiful. Only thing is there isn't much development going on for it. Good thing is that if you want to root you can get the stock ICS feel going on it. I personally prefer it with sense, but some on here would probably call me a heretic for saying that. To each their own.
All in all...definitely a solid buy if you can nab it for $230 or less. Otherwise there are already and also will soon be new phones at a similar or lesser price that'd probably be a better choice. I think that covered most everything you asked lol
Sent from my HTC Holiday using xda premium
Just got the wife a Vivid. I can't speak to the sim card issue but I can tell you that the battery life is about average for similarly spec'd phones. She gets a full day out of it but has to charge it every night. There is an option in the default firmware to turn off the data and this will increase your battery life. Finally I really like the ICS/Sense combo, but that is a complete personal preference thing. I would recommend rooting it to remove bloatware if you are so inclined; the process isn't too difficult but as for all HTC phones it's harder than it needs to be. After root there are many rom options both with and without Sense.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda app-developers app
Ok if you want to use 4g LTE then, you will need a new sim card(ATT will give you a new sim card). But other wise just insert your sim card. You shouldn't have to change you Apn.
The bloat ware is not too bad but the restrictions can get annoying. First of all you can't do any wireless tethering. 2. You can't download any tethering apps from the market or other app att chooses to restrict.
Now I pretty sure that ginger bread has a data toggle. But I know that ics has a data toggle. The toggle can be seen by holding down the power button.
The battery life is not that good. If you want to save power keep WiFi off whenever you can and do not keep your phone on auto brightness, it will kill your battery. Also I've noticed that with facebook, YouTube, WiFi, auto brightness and, plugged into a charger the phones battery level will decline or just never move. The stock battery is a 1620mAh battery. You can improve the battery buy getting a battery case or a bigger battery. I suggest Mugen Power 3400mAh battery: http://www.mugenbattery.com/mugen-power-extended-3400mah-battery-for-htc-vivid-htc-raider-4g/
Also while use a lot of apps the phone will heat up.
If you consider rooting then go to this thread. It will help you with all the roms and other things: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1486024/
The Vivid is a good phone but if you have the money then get the New HTC One x which is way better the vivid. And its only $99 on contract: http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/
-Kyle
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda app-developers app
I had a Samsung Captivate since the day it came out, but it finally broke. I decided to look on Craigslist because I did not want to use my 2 year upgrade (I'm saving it for the iPhone 5, possibly going to sell it and make a quick buck). Anyways, I found a White Vivid for 120 and jumped on it. I have absolutely no regrets. Like you, I still only had a 3G SIM Card/Plan. I walked into AT&T and they had me out within 10 minutes of entering. That was not an issue at all.
I can only speak for me in saying that the Battery Life will last you quite a long time in Stand-By with Mobile/Wi-Fi turned off. I have no reason to keep it on because I don't need live updates nor do I get tons of emails. I still charge it every night, but with moderate use, I usually end the day with about 70% left. I rooted my phone, but I have always been a fan of Sense, so I am going to keep that. My one complaint is that if I were to put on a case (the guy included an Otterbox Impact case), the phone is uncomfortably large. When it has no case, it feels like a very premium phone with the extra weight.
I honestly can't recommend it. I like mine but honestly sense is too intrusive and development is slow to dead because of ridiculous security measures and let's face it its not getting jelly bean. You want a replacement for your nexus one, get a galaxy nexus from Google. Me personally between my flyer and this phone i really hate HTC nowadays
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Vivid is a nice phone like everyone says but for flashaholics its dead in the water. I'm going Samsung in November..good luck which ever way u go.
Sent from my HTC Holiday using xda app-developers app
I personally love the vivid. When I was picking my upgrade it was between either this, the skyrocket or the lumia 900 (which I'm glad I didn't go with). I picked this mainly because of the higher screen resolution. I like things to look very crisp. The phone gave me exactly what I wanted. It IS a pita to root if you're new to that kind of thing, but there is an all-in-one kit here that makes it muuuuuch easier. Then again, you don't have to do that. I just wanted the att junk off. And that pos of a fb app.
I only have two gripes with the phone. Battery life is sub par, even after removing the junk and later flashing to a de-sensed rom. And I wish it were as wide as the skyrocket. I have enormous monkey hands and the thinness of the phone works against me. I should have gotten the Note lol.
Vivid, Virtuous Inquisition, De-Sensed, badass.
One thing to consider the only way to root is to unlock the bootloader through HTC developers. And if you relock it, it says "re locked" on the bootloader, effectively telling at&t and htc you messed with it voiding your warranty. You can use a program to change the text back to unlocked but that requires s off and s off requires removing a panel with a screw that says "void". And I've come to find if you take the plunge and root your best off with just making changes yourself because there aren't a whole lot of variety when it comes to custom roms. So if you're looking for a good stock phone, and don't care about jelly bean and don't mind that it looks nothing like the ics rom that Google showed off in October, then go for it. However if you want the freedom to customize then look elsewhere. That's my 2 cents
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
Thanks everyone for the replies this far. I'm not really that much into rooting and installing custom ROMs, especially on my daily phones. If I screw something up, I'd be out of of a phone for a while. I'm willing to give Sense a try as I've never used it in a "production" environment, so I don't quite know what to expect from it.
Something that I have a question about is a potential audio bug with ICS. I've read that sometimes audio will stop working and you have to reboot the phone for it temporarily fix the problem. Is this a common issue and to what extent does it effect things? Are things like the ringer and alarms effected?
As for battery life, the more that I've thought about it, I don't think it will be too much of a concern. I don't live in a 4G area (I don't think we have HSPA+ and I know we don't have LTE), so I'd be on 3G or EDGE most of the time. Furthermore, I don't use mobile data much at all, maybe 30 minutes a day max. I turn it on when I need it (same with WiFi). I also make sure apps and accounts (aside from Gmail) are not syncing.
I've done some reading about the aforementioned audio problems, and a few places seemed to have mentioned that if you disable "Fast boot" from the Power Options, it fixes the audio problems. Does anyone know more about this?
beanboy89 said:
I've done some reading about the aforementioned audio problems, and a few places seemed to have mentioned that if you disable "Fast boot" from the Power Options, it fixes the audio problems. Does anyone know more about this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What audio problems are you having?
I have no audio problems. Really the only bug I have is the Wifi switching on and off automatically. All and all its a great phone aside from battery life on stock but itst not a geeks phone, not at all. I rooted but considering the re locked bootloader thing and considering there just isn't a solid stock replacement rom, I kinda regret it.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
Cor-master said:
I have no audio problems. Really the only bug I have is the Wifi switching on and off automatically. All and all its a great phone aside from battery life on stock but itst not a geeks phone, not at all. I rooted but considering the re locked bootloader thing and considering there just isn't a solid stock replacement rom, I kinda regret it.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a ton of roms out but have you tried WCX's roms? In my opinion its a great stock rom for you. Fast, no bloat, wifi is stable and battery life is better than stock, not great but better. I'm not here trying to say this is better than that. I can speak for this rom bc I use it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ntQq6vAaOI
strose09 said:
There are a ton of roms out but have you tried WCX's roms? In my opinion its a great stock rom for you. Fast, no bloat, wifi is stable and battery life is better than stock, not great but better. I'm not here trying to say this is better than that. I can speak for this rom bc I use it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ntQq6vAaOI
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I might give it a try. I put on the stock deodexed at&t rom because I just couldn't find the "perfect" rom for me. I tried Holics which is great but just a bit overkill and as stupid as I sounds the fact the Lee Droid tweaks didn't have the correct ics over scroll color drove me nuts. I tried de Sensed which I loved but couldn't handle the low dialer volume issue.
Pretty much I'm looking for a sense rom with a nice mix of aosp and Sense theming. Really wanna get rid of all traces of the sense green color, and have a pure aosp notification area and bar. I'd prefer something light honestly.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
strose09 said:
What audio problems are you having?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
None. It's just a concern that I have about the Vivid after reading various reports about some audio problems that users had encountered after the ICS update.
beanboy89 said:
None. It's just a concern that I have about the Vivid after reading various reports about some audio problems that users had encountered after the ICS update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No audio problems here after ICS. Sometimes if you're listening to headphones the jack might come out at times but its not a big deal, a firm push usually does the trick.
Verizon contract is up in a couple weeks so I'm jumping to T-Mobile (costs less) and getting the Nexus 6. I just have a few questions.
Are there any weird quirks with the phone? Anything I won't find out by playing with the phone in store for 10 minutes? Is the phone as powerful as the specs say it is?
I saw some of the older battery life charts in the other thread and they aren't terrible. Is battery life still decent? I'm looking for 4-5+ hours of screen-on time ideally.
Does the "quick charger" that comes with it work well?
Tl;dr Do you recommend the phone?
It's a loaded post, which is why a lot of views, but nary a reply.
However ....
Your title to me is better than jumping on a N6, which could be disastrous to the phone.
If you have looked over the threads, you'll get varying opinions, and mostly IMO it depends on two things:
What they had/came from
What they expect out of the N6.
I will only speak for myself; I came from a VZ GNex I hung onto for 3 years - anything I may have gone to would be a worthy HW upgrade, however I want to tweak my phone when I'm ready to, and that means a Nexus.
I love the phone, it was a bit of a letdown, as I was already running 5.0 on my GNex, so the experience was to a larger, faster smoother phone than what I had. Other than that, I'm loving every minute of having it, plain and simple.
I have one other person who transitioned to one, and he loves it as well.
I'm not going to tell you to get it, you have to go play with it and decide for yourself.
To your specific questions:
quirks - no more so than any other phone, I haven't found any yet myself - most who post I think have to do with not knowing what they set in Lollipop, I've already had it for a bit, so I'm used to it.
Yup, its fast and powerful, whether or not you decide to go unencrypted is up to you, which goes to what you had and what you expect - are you going to unlock root, mod? You can enjoy this phone for quite a bit of time before maybe even needing a reason to go mod it.
Personally, I haven't yet, nor have a lot of members here (check the what rom are you running on VZ thread) because again, I haven't (other than wanting to change my softkeys) had a good reason (to me) to invest the time to do it.
I'm sure it will happen, but not right now. right now I'm just enjoying the hell out of having it.
Batt time is always subjective, whether or not we care to admit it. No two devices are going to run the same, have the same app load outs, some have different memory it appears, and some may actually (gasp) have a bad batt on arrival.
Mine has ran terrific (remember again - what I had and what I expect), and the QC runs great to recharge if need be. I can say that I love not worrying about the batt right now on it daily, but that's for me and my usage.
Battery is fine and its quick. The fast charger works well. I'm not really a fan of them but its what it comes with. I came from a m8 which was a nice device but I like this one better.
Raikalo said:
Tl;dr Do you recommend the phone?
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Click to collapse
My wife and I jumped from Sprint to T-Mobile, handing off our Evo 4G's when the Nexus 6 was released, and wouldn't look back. The Nexus 6 has been nothing short of awesome... the camera, speed, screen, everything - is awesome. We keep ours in thick iBlason "Armorbox" cases, and still enjoy our QI charging (I'm unsure how QI isn't a requirement in modern phones these days!). A lot of friends complained about the size, but those that got it anyway, ended up "getting over it" and now won't go back to the smaller screens, heh! It still fits nicely in my (male) jean pockets -- with the large case -- but you'd be hard-pressed to get it safely in female pockets (sorry ladies... you're not allowed to put stuff in the pockets!).
Quirks: one big thing jumped out at me, but isn't a big deal for most. The phone does have built-in RGB LEDs that sit underneath the top speaker, yet, they chose to block access to this functionality. I guess they reused the underlying board but didn't want the LEDs, but nonetheless, they are invaluable to me: I enjoy knowing if I have something waiting for me *without* having to look at the screen - whether while in bed, sitting on the desk, riding the bike, etc.! The plus, you can get at these LEDs if you're rooted. So... if that's possibly desirable to you, I'd recommend unlocking the phone as soon as you get it, so you can avoid the data wipe down the road. The Lightflow app can handle them quite well (though I believe it requires the "Pro" version, for a couple bucks). ...and as of now, the LEDs are "on or off" - no flashing... but hey, I'll take what I can get!
Oh, and not really related to the phone itself, but a Google-Nexus 6 quirk -- quite annoying at the time, for me -- Google's "My Tracks" app was broken for awhile (unable to acquire the GPS signal). There are a gazillion alternatives out there, but I'd been a long-time daily user of the app, and Google broke it!...for months. It was disappointing that they would break core app functionality on their *current* flagship device, for their own app, and choose to ignore it for such a long time. I think the 5.1 update fixed whatever problem they had, but that was a pet peeve.. On the plus side, I've enjoyed the feature-rich alternatives that I was forced to explore, ha!
We haven't messed with de-crypting ourselves, as the phones are super-duper-fast as-is, but we love them. These are our introduction to the Nexus world, and we love the fact that they no-bars-hold permit unlocking, and that the updates are, of course, front line.
Tl;dr I highly recommend the phone! Phone size is the only recurring complaint among friends.
Thank you everyone for the replies. Yes, battery life is subjective ...so long as most of the reviews say the battery is good enough, that's all I care about. First-hand reviews from users are always the best because I know everyone isn't just trying to sell me a phone . As far as the LEDs being unusable when not rooted, that isn't a big deal for me. My current phone (Razr Maxx HD, xt926 verizon) has the LEDs and fantastic battery life through various mods, but is simply not cutting it anymore for what I need. I've never heard of the My Tracks app, so I guess it's a good thing since I didn't know it was broken lol.
This will be my first Nexus phone... I have the Nexus 7 (2012) tablet that is currently running CM12 nightlies, so I'm familiar with the "Nexus experience" and Lollipop already. I like it quite a bit, but it did take a little getting used to. I was very much planning on unlocking and rooting the N6 immediately, but I'll play with it a bit and enjoy the stock experience first.
@vormund Do you like T-Mobile, now that you switched from Sprint?
@RW-1 Can you explain the encryption you're talking about a little more? This is the first I've heard of it.
Again, thanks everyone for the replies. I'm pretty much sold on the phone at this point.
Raikalo said:
Thank you everyone for the replies. Yes, battery life is subjective ...so long as most of the reviews say the battery is good enough, that's all I care about. First-hand reviews from users are always the best because I know everyone isn't just trying to sell me a phone . As far as the LEDs being unusable when not rooted, that isn't a big deal for me. My current phone (Razr Maxx HD, xt926 verizon) has the LEDs and fantastic battery life through various mods, but is simply not cutting it anymore for what I need. I've never heard of the My Tracks app, so I guess it's a good thing since I didn't know it was broken lol.
This will be my first Nexus phone... I have the Nexus 7 (2012) tablet that is currently running CM12 nightlies, so I'm familiar with the "Nexus experience" and Lollipop already. I like it quite a bit, but it did take a little getting used to. I was very much planning on unlocking and rooting the N6 immediately, but I'll play with it a bit and enjoy the stock experience first.
@vormund Do you like T-Mobile, now that you switched from Sprint?
@RW-1 Can you explain the encryption you're talking about a little more? This is the first I've heard of it.
Again, thanks everyone for the replies. I'm pretty much sold on the phone at this point.
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Click to collapse
I am currently using MeanPop 2.11 on my Nexus 6 and it has a blinking LED light for notifications, a blinking red light for while your phone is charging and a green light for when the device is fully charged. I had the phone a couple of hours tops before I rooted it, so I can't really provide an opinion on the device out of the box. My brother is using a non-rooted Nexus 6 and he loves it as well. We both came from the Note Edge, but enjoy the Nexus 6 more than any device we have used up to this point. Out of the box, the device is encrypted (which some people have stated that their performance suffered compared to being unencrypted). You can easily unlock the phone and decrypt it. There is a solid guide for this in the development section. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or ask them here and I'll assist where I can.
slimc84 said:
I am currently using MeanPop 2.11 on my Nexus 6 and it has a blinking LED light for notifications, a blinking red light for while your phone is charging and a green light for when the device is fully charged. I had the phone a couple of hours tops before I rooted it, so I can't really provide an opinion on the device out of the box. My brother is using a non-rooted Nexus 6 and he loves it as well. We both came from the Note Edge, but enjoy the Nexus 6 more than any device we have used up to this point. Out of the box, the device is encrypted (which some people have stated that their performance suffered compared to being unencrypted). You can easily unlock the phone and decrypt it. There is a solid guide for this in the development section. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or ask them here and I'll assist where I can.
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Click to collapse
That solves the LED issue. I will probably decrypt the device since I don't know why I would need it encrypted. Thank you. I will definitely message you with any questions, but I won't have the phone until closer to the end of April (24th or so), so it will be a bit yet. I'm just glad the phone is shaping up to be as great as I am expecting it to be.
Out of curiosity, what are the benefits of leaving the phone encrypted?
Raikalo said:
@vormund Do you like T-Mobile, now that you switched from Sprint?
@RW-1 Can you explain the encryption you're talking about a little more? This is the first I've heard of it..
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Click to collapse
T-Mobile has been equal-to-or-better than Sprint in Tucson, AZ... their customer service is dreadful (store reps are absolutely useless), but if you're persistent, you usually come out alright - which I'm happy to do with the difference in cost (+$10 to join my sister's plan versus $30+ for Sprint's split... among the other (contract, discount, etc.) considerations! Data is hit-or-miss on the outskirts of the city, but so is Sprint (and ATT)...Verizon seems to have solid service out there, though...(then again, you pay for it!)...
Data speeds are almost always slower when compared to Verizon (a friend with Verizon did some speed tests with me...we're both usually LTE, but he'd consistently get 3-4x faster speeds...this probably varies greatly by locale and their networks), but it's sufficient for me. If you're one to watch Netflix or download a ton, it'll probably be quite the downgrade.. but me - I'm on wireless for any big data usage, so network-wise, I'm just mapping, a little music streaming, geo tracking and such.
Encryption: For the extra paranoid or those with ultra-sensitive information on their phones, perhaps?
I suspect it would make things a little more difficult for law enforcement, too... depending on backdoors and such? Actually, yeah, that looks to be the case!
After seeing the speed comparisons, I'd definitely switch over now, even though the phone is fast-as-can-be as it is, ha. One of these days maybe... but for now, it's a few more minutes in a already-crazy day.
slimc84 said:
I am currently using MeanPop 2.11 on my Nexus 6 and it has a blinking LED light for notifications...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks great to know, thanks for the info! +1 for a custom ROM. I think the reason Lightflow can't do it directly - with rooted stock - as it'd have to keep the phone awake. There well may be ways around that by now... I just wish they'd enable direct access without (there's just no good reason to take away a hardware feature... disabled by default, but come on! ).
vormund said:
T-Mobile has been equal-to-or-better than Sprint in Tucson, AZ... their customer service is dreadful (store reps are absolutely useless), but if you're persistent, you usually come out alright - which I'm happy to do with the difference in cost (+$10 to join my sister's plan versus $30+ for Sprint's split... among the other (contract, discount, etc.) considerations! Data is hit-or-miss on the outskirts of the city, but so is Sprint (and ATT)...Verizon seems to have solid service out there, though...(then again, you pay for it!)...
Data speeds are almost always slower when compared to Verizon (a friend with Verizon did some speed tests with me...we're both usually LTE, but he'd consistently get 3-4x faster speeds...this probably varies greatly by locale and their networks), but it's sufficient for me. If you're one to watch Netflix or download a ton, it'll probably be quite the downgrade.. but me - I'm on wireless for any big data usage, so network-wise, I'm just mapping, a little music streaming, geo tracking and such.
Encryption: For the extra paranoid or those with ultra-sensitive information on their phones, perhaps?
I suspect it would make things a little more difficult for law enforcement, too... depending on backdoors and such? Actually, yeah, that looks to be the case!
After seeing the speed comparisons, I'd definitely switch over now, even though the phone is fast-as-can-be as it is, ha. One of these days maybe... but for now, it's a few more minutes in a already-crazy day.
Thanks great to know, thanks for the info! +1 for a custom ROM. I think the reason Lightflow can't do it directly - with rooted stock - as it'd have to keep the phone awake. There well may be ways around that by now... I just wish they'd enable direct access without (there's just no good reason to take away a hardware feature... disabled by default, but come on! ).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A wakelock is triggered with the flashing LED even in the custom Rom (burns 1-2% per hour that the LED is flashing). It's definitely worth having though. The ROM is solid and I haven't had a single issue with it yet.
After reading the benchmarking for encryption vs decryption, I'm definitely decrypting the phone when I get it. I'm not overly worried about the LEDs (does seem weird though that it's not like all of the other android phones I've had, where they just work, regardless of ROM). I'm in the middle of the East Coast where (according to coverage maps) 4G is more available, so I'll definitely run some speed tests and see how T-mobile's data speeds stack up on this side of the country. I really just need a fast browser with good, stable internet speeds. I won't complain if it's faster than 3G.