Database Develop

[Q] Time to upgrade........

OK, its time to upgrade my trusty DHD.....
...but what gets my hard-earned (no, really) pennies?
To me there are 4 options........
1) HTC One X
2) Samsung Galaxy Note
3) Wait until the 30th and get the Samsung Galaxy SIII
4) Keep the DHD for another 12 months and benefit from a cheaper contract.
So, if it was your pennies getting spent, where would they be going?
I'm looking for views from existing SGN users here. Do you love the Note? Hate it? What do you like most about it, and what drives you potty?
Thanks in advance for your comments.
Rob

I love my note. It's definitely my favorite phone out of the 8 smartphones I've owned (iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS, 4, HTC Sensation, Samsung Vibrant, LG G2X). The downside? It is the most disappointing phone development wise. There doesn't seem to be any good ROM out there. Stock is painfully slow. There is no CM7 which is really disappointing. Any of the ICS I've seen out has had major problems which is why I haven't upgraded yet. There are horror stories about people bring their phones when upgrading to ICS and so far it doesn't seem to be a small number of people which is really sad. Samsung is JUST rolling out ICS now but I've heard stock ICS is also very slow and if you have CWM on or from what I understand have rooted your phone at all, you run a huge risk of bricking if you try put ICS on.
TL DR; If you don't mind staying stock for a WHILE, get the Note because it's awesome having a huge screen, resolution, and the SPen.
EDIT: Spelling

cruno91 said:
I love my note. It's definitely my favorite phone out of the 8 smartphones I've owned (iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS, 4, HTC Sensation, Samsung Vibrant, LG G2X). The downside? It is the most disappointing phone development wise. There doesn't seem to be any good ROM out there. Stock is painfully slow. There is no CM7 which is really disappointing. Any of the ICS I've seen out has had major problems which is why I haven't upgraded yet. There are horror stories about people bring their phones when upgrading to ICS and so far it doesn't seem to be a small number of people which is really sad. Samsung is JUST rolling out ICS now but I've heard stock ICS is also very slow and if you have CWM on or from what I understand have rooted your phone at all, you run a huge risk of bricking if you try put ICS on.
TL DR; If you don't mind staying stock for a WHILE, get the Note because it's awesome having a huge screen, resolution, and the SPen.
EDIT: Spelling
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly my thoughts! Thanks for saving me the trouble of typing. I am lazy as hell.
I flashed tons of ROMs and back to stock. At least I won't be bricking my phone this way.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA

To the OP: If I were you, I would get the One X or the S3, depending on the needs. Like I need the sd card and removable battery so it would rather be the S3 for me. Assuming you haven't used the note for long, both these phones must feel great to you. For almost all of us here, they are just too darn small. Once you use a note, you just get addicted to it.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA

Thanks guys. Keep them coming.
I played with the Note and the HOX today and liked them both, but the huge Note battery is drawing me towards it.
I'm 6'1" and have hands like pan-shovels so the size of the Note isnt a -ve to me.

love mine too!
Yeah loving the bigger screen. I'd never go back to something smaller.
On a different note.. (haha) had mine a month and have rooted and switched the rom and Kernel.. wasn't very hard just had to get over the mind set of bricking it.
Buy one!

Note, large screen, s-pen apps (if you're inclined to use them), some good roms, ICS development with the new builds should be on their way soon
the rest? S3, rather than 1x. or at least wait till reviews come out comparing the 2.

wait
wait for Galaxy S3 - I allready have it and It's awsome!!!

RobTheRover said:
OK, its time to upgrade my trusty DHD.....
...but what gets my hard-earned (no, really) pennies?
To me there are 4 options........
1) HTC One X
2) Samsung Galaxy Note
3) Wait until the 30th and get the Samsung Galaxy SIII
4) Keep the DHD for another 12 months and benefit from a cheaper contract.
So, if it was your pennies getting spent, where would they be going?
I'm looking for views from existing SGN users here. Do you love the Note? Hate it? What do you like most about it, and what drives you potty?
Thanks in advance for your comments.
Rob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Note is fabulous - better than the GNex I came from. Why? The screen principally - the Galaxy nexus screen just seemed so small compared!
I think the answer is this:
1. If you want the latest tech - go for the One X or the S3.
2. However, as it's so early in their life cycle you don't know what problems they will have (other than we already know the OneX has cr*p battery life) and we all know that no phone is perfect. Each phone I've had (and I've had a few) has had it's own unique issue.
3. If screen size is important, forget the other two and go for the Note. There is just simply no question of that (until Note II is announced in future!)
Maybe quad core will be a bit faster than dual core but I doubt it will make much of a difference in everyday use. In any event, I hate TW / Sense etc so always remove that bloatware and, hey presto, android flies on the Note (not that it was sluggish with TW).
And the lack of reliable ICS at the moment? In the words of Catherine Tate (look her up if you're not British!) - am I bovvered? There's such a clamour for it and, yes, it's a bit prettier and more logical in places but GB is absolutely fine for 99.98%.
Just my £0.02. Good luck with the decision.
Edit: Just seen that you're a brit - no need to look up Catherine Tate! More importantly, just realised you've got a DHD. Move on, you won't be disappointed. Sure, tech will move on over the next few monts, years etc but it always does.

apd said:
In the words of Catherine Tate (look her up if you're not British!) - am I bovvered?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We Americans also know who Catherine Tate is, and not just because she's on our version of The Office now
Clicked as soon as you said "am I bovvered?".

Go for the Note,mate. You won't regret it
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

apd said:
The Note is fabulous - better than the GNex I came from. Why? The screen principally - the Galaxy nexus screen just seemed so small compared!
I think the answer is this:
1. If you want the latest tech - go for the One X or the S3.
2. However, as it's so early in their life cycle you don't know what problems they will have (other than we already know the OneX has cr*p battery life) and we all know that no phone is perfect. Each phone I've had (and I've had a few) has had it's own unique issue.
3. If screen size is important, forget the other two and go for the Note. There is just simply no question of that (until Note II is announced in future!)
Maybe quad core will be a bit faster than dual core but I doubt it will make much of a difference in everyday use. In any event, I hate TW / Sense etc so always remove that bloatware and, hey presto, android flies on the Note (not that it was sluggish with TW).
And the lack of reliable ICS at the moment? In the words of Catherine Tate (look her up if you're not British!) - am I bovvered? There's such a clamour for it and, yes, it's a bit prettier and more logical in places but GB is absolutely fine for 99.98%.
Just my £0.02. Good luck with the decision.
Edit: Just seen that you're a brit - no need to look up Catherine Tate! More importantly, just realised you've got a DHD. Move on, you won't be disappointed. Sure, tech will move on over the next few monts, years etc but it always does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that. I agree with your assessment, especially ICS which is definitely leaving me underwhelmed in terms of how "un-different" (new word!) it is to GB, especially after having used Honeycomb on my tablet for the past 6 months.
I've decided (with a feeling of I'm cheating on a loved one) to get a Note online, then I can return it under distance selling laws if I find it unbearable to live with. I suspect it wont be going back.
Genuinely, many thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. Your insight has been much appreciated.
Rob

I love the large screen and battery of the Note.
The S3 is more future proof, but only because of the processors. RAM is the same.
One thing in the s3's favor is the LED notification light! w00t! I have been missing this on EVERY device that wasn't a blackberry!
The s3 also has a large battery, but .. the Note takes the cake.
The One X is out of the picture. Why? Removable battery. Also, they pushed the device so fast to get it out on the market as one of the first quadcore devices that ... well, to me it doesn't seem that attractive. The s3 on the other hand looks mighty fine!
The Note is awesome for its screen and battery size (as well as the S-Pen).
It's really your call... Sometimes I wish my note were a tiny bit smaller, but I don't regret it when I'm actually using it! hehe.

I upgraded from DHD to galaxy note and can say it was the upgrade. Absolutely amazing display over DHD, much better battery life, faster, smoother, much better camera, etc. When I look back now to already my wife's DHD, it seems to be a nice small phone ... Was able to replace most of work on my laptop with note thanks to Swype ...
I have both on stock ROM, didn't find need to go for ICS on my note. Everything is working flawlessly, maybe will change my mind half year later when there will be more positive reaction from community ... my few cents .
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

One thing that's driving me mad is the sluggishness of the stock Gingerbread ROM. Is the official ICS ROM still sluggish?
If so, would rooting the phone and deleting some of the bloat help? Also, is it possible to remove Touchwiz from the official ROM? I'm a bit scared to try any other ROMs in case I brick my phone.

I've had my note since november and I love it!! The huge screen is so much fun and great to surf the web!!! It doesn't feel bigger in my pocket than my previous phone (iPhone). Even though it has a huge screen the battery life is really good (especially with my actual rom Criskelo)
I haven't tried the other phones you posted but I am still trying to understand why anyone would need a quadcore in his phone today!! I installed spy cpu on my SGN and my CPU almost never rises to 1400MHz so what could anyone do with the extra power maybe 3D games since I don't play any so can't tell about the performances but I doubt it since the note still has one of the best processors out there! The games I play are: solitaire, temple run, fruit ninja,...
joyork said:
One thing that's driving me mad is the sluggishness of the stock Gingerbread ROM. Is the official ICS ROM still sluggish?
If so, would rooting the phone and deleting some of the bloat help? Also, is it possible to remove Touchwiz from the official ROM? I'm a bit scared to try any other ROMs in case I brick my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't really notice the sluggishness, everything seems smooth!! The rom I am using is lighter than the stock rom so there may be a difference! If you wan't to remove Touchwiz you'd better install a new rom on your phone would be easier than to modify the stock rom! In either case you need to root your phone! At first didn't want to do it but in the end I am happy and giving some good feedback about the rom I am using! And the bricking is pretty rare!!
To install a new rom if you literally follow instructions you can't run into problems!! A bit of research and in the end it just takes 10/15min to change rom!

joyork said:
One thing that's driving me mad is the sluggishness of the stock Gingerbread ROM. Is the official ICS ROM still sluggish?
If so, would rooting the phone and deleting some of the bloat help? Also, is it possible to remove Touchwiz from the official ROM? I'm a bit scared to try any other ROMs in case I brick my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's an easy one. Root and install one of the stock rooted GB Roms. No need to 'remove' TW. Just install another launcher (let's not start the 'which launcher is best' argument here) and then set that as default. TW will fade into the background and won't be used and your Note will be faster.
---------- Post added at 04:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:25 PM ----------
zkyevolved said:
The s3 also has a large battery, but .. the Note takes the cake.
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Click to collapse
Only 2100mah I think? Not that big - nearly 20% smaller than the Note.

2) Samsung Galaxy Note

ROM help

I just put serendipity 6 on my buddys captivate. I don't know anything about the development for this phone so I kinda had to wing it to pick which rom to put on. He was on eclair . He loves it the new.but my question is, any reason to put serendipity 7 on it instead or any other ROM for that matter? I want to give him the best stability and battery with customization. Any help is.appreciated
I do have to say this was a fun phone to mess around with for the first time
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Sorry, there is no quick answer. ROM selection is a personal preference thing.
However there is a thread on xda comparing roms battery performance. If I remember correctly serendipity was among the top. Fasty was up there too.
I'll look for the link when I get home and edit my post.

Thanks for the reply. I just want to leave him with something that it's stable and if serendipity I'd up there.my job is done.thanks man
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I found the thread I had mentioned, but it's old. It has been almost a year since there were any constructive posts. It was full of squabbling, so I won't bring it back to life by posting a link to it. Too bad though, cause the guy who started it had good intentions.
Probably best to let this thread die also. Battery / performance comparison threads seem to get ugly after a while.

John7ate9 said:
I found the thread I had mentioned, but it's old. It has been almost a year since there were any constructive posts. It was full of squabbling, so I won't bring it back to life by posting a link to it. Too bad though, cause the guy who started it had good intentions.
Probably best to let this thread die also. Battery / performance comparison threads seem to get ugly after a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this phone is almost three + years old. so many ppl have moved to newer versions. those who still has this phone are moved on to ICS (Ice cream Sand-witch (4.0.4) based ROMs. ICS is fast, stable and good on battery as well.
that's why there is no action on GB based ROMS.
I am on Slim ICS and highly recommend it.

until they get the encryption unsuccessful bug worked out that is a pretty good reason to recommend staying with the gingerbread roms

i suggest you go with gingerbread because it was tested that it has a better battery performance plus the graphics drivers upgraded.

Legend 4 is the most active GB ROM with current and helpful developers still active. I run it with no problems.

KMan94 said:
Legend 4 is the most active GB ROM with current and helpful developers still active. I run it with no problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll second that!

downgrade to a droid 4

the motorola milestone was my favourite phone. the retro sci fi looks and awesome keyboard really did it for me. I then decided to upgrade to a more powerful modern phone but because I am in the UK choices were limited. the htc z was not really a big enough leap forward so I tried the latest BB Bold with touch screen and physical keyboard. it lasted 2 weeks and I sold it. There were no other physical keyboard phones out in the UK that were modern specs so I decided to give up and buy a Samsung galaxy note, and then a note 2 which I currently use.
the trouble is I suck at typing on a screen, I NEED a physical keyboard back and have been searching for options. I have settled for two potential sliders, the droid 4 and the samsung relay s t699.
the droid 4 is cheaper for me to find at about £50 or £60 delivered to the UK from the states while the relay is at least twice the price. due to this and my previous love for the OG droid (even with that locked bootloader) I am looking into the droid 4 first.
do you think the downgrade from the note 2 to the droid 4 is gonna be a steep one? I cant look or hold one in person to know because we cant buy them here. I dont mind a bit of a downgrade though because I really want a physical keyboard. I was hoping with a decent rom and other tweaks I could get the most out of a droid 4 and be happy. can some current droid users give me some honest opinions on how they are holding up towards the end of 2014?
many thanks

I can say that I'm really happy with the keyboard of the droid 4. The fact that it a full QWERTY keyboard makes typing quite easy on the phone. You can also install my Hacker keyboard for enabling the rest of the keys.
Performance wise there are still some, and I stress, SMALL issues here and there but nothing serious. I'm using Cyanogen Mod and it works way better than the stock ROM but there are still some small bugs. For example GPS is not working for me, but I haven't really investigated the issue so maybe is fixable, or I did something wrong.
The good thing is that the SafeStrap recovery used for droid is really nice and you can also keep the stock Rom.
So if you want you can choose to boot the stock ROM.
Overall I'm satisfied with the phone and I would recommend you to buy one.
If you have any questions I would be happy to help

many thanks for your reply
can I ask, how bad is the screen? consider I would be coming from a Note 2. A lot of reviews mention ghosting of text when dark text is displayed on light backgrounds. How bad is it? Do custom roms make any difference?

I don't have any issues with the screen, but to be honest I haven't given a close attention regarding what you said.
I'll have a look in the coming days and if I find something I'll post.

mo0n_sniper said:
I don't have any issues with the screen, but to be honest I haven't given a close attention regarding what you said.
I'll have a look in the coming days and if I find something I'll post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi mo0n_sniper,
I've just got a Droid 4, and I'd like to use CM11 too. Do you (or most people) use the official rom from the cyanogenmod site, or use one of the roms posted in the android development section on here?
Thanks

Hi moodroid,
I use the one from the Cyanogen Mod site.
You can follow this howto: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_maserati

i like the droid 4 a lot and the keyboard is insanely comfortable compared to droid 3. performance wise id say its a capable phone but if you wanna do higher end gaming on android then its gonna struggle. cm11 has been great to me and GPS works just fine and i dont have any problems with the screen.. honestly i dont ever want to go back to stock or previous versions of android because of how comfortable 4.4 is
you can get the latest builds from the official cyanogenmod site because thats where theyre pushing all the updates
one thing thats a big negative (at least for me) is that droid 4 cant use LTE outside of the US (or verizon) so youll only have 3g.
a secondary negative is battery life but you can have workarounds for that and both of these cons depend on how you intend to use the device

Thanks for your replies. My DROID 4 arrived today and we'll the screen might take some getting used to but I look forward to rooting and flashing a rom tonight!
Any reccomendations for custom ROMs?

Slimkat or latest official CM11 snapshot. I personally use Slimkat with Apex launcher for the low memory usage.
CM12 is close to DD-able, but it has a few bugs and lollipop doesn't bring our phone much over the 4.4.4 roms with ART enabled.

Well I finally got my phone rooted and custom ROM flashed so thanks a bunch fellas!
I rooted following this guy's video [Root] Droid 4 (XT894) Jellybean with SafeRoot as @mo0n_sniper 's link to the cyanogenmod site was bit too much for the brain at the moment, need to learn all the new lingo!
I managed to install [cm-11-20141207-NIGHTLY-maserati] and it seems to be working great! I installed it into the stock-rom slot as I read that it was ok as long as I had a recent version of safestrap. I do have a query though. I come from the Note 2 where there was no such thing as safestrap and having multiple slots for roms. I always overwrote the stock rom and never had an issue. Now on safestrap it appears as though the stock rom slot is not using all of the memory available on the device. I don't want to be able to install multiple roms at once, I would like to use the device to it's full potential, utilising all available memory. What is the best way to do this? Or am I already doing it? What do those partition sizes actually mean? If someone could be kind enough to drop some knowledge that would be awesome!
As I am in the UK I also used [cdma_to_gsm_patch_for_verizon_phones_v3.3_by_mentor] and that let me use my network just fine.
Oh and just incase any other newbies are interested, for GAPPS I used [pa_gapps-modular-pico-4.4.4-20141207-signed] and it works great, just the bare minimum google stuff.
P.S. @mo0n_sniper thank you for your hacker keyboard, I have that running. Can I ask, is there a way to do an exclamation mark without moving both my thumbs over to the left side of the keyboard to hold [shift] and [1]?
Thank you guys, it feels so good to be back on a solid keyboard!

Elanzer said:
Slimkat or latest official CM11 snapshot. I personally use Slimkat with Apex launcher for the low memory usage.
CM12 is close to DD-able, but it has a few bugs and lollipop doesn't bring our phone much over the 4.4.4 roms with ART enabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May I ask what version of slimkat you are running? I had a look but had no idea what to go for. Also what is ART and how does one enable it? Thanks

rattymon said:
May I ask what version of slimkat you are running? I had a look but had no idea what to go for. Also what is ART and how does one enable it? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?a=show&w=files&flid=8820 from this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2491855
8.10 is the latest. ART is a new compiler for Android, basically enabling it makes programs load faster as everything is pre-compiled instead of compiled-at-run. It's enabled by default on Android 5.0, but you can turn it on in developer options in 4.4.

Rattymon if u change Safestrap to BootMenu Manager (and Patch it) you can use Cyan11 on unused partitions (like /webtop) and you save a lot of memory (on /sdcard)
Fervi

Do any of you have any problems with the screen?
I bough a D4 from ebay, but the screen on it is just awfull, even compared to my crapiest phones.
I have a very bad ghosting effect. Is there any way to make it better?
Oh and BTW, right now Im using CM12, working great.

BFG9000D said:
Do any of you have any problems with the screen?
I bough a D4 from ebay, but the screen on it is just awfull, even compared to my crapiest phones.
I have a very bad ghosting effect. Is there any way to make it better?
Oh and BTW, right now Im using CM12, working great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah, the screen is naturally crappy like that and there's no way to fix it. Almost all reviewers of the Droid 4 remarked on it's poor screen. I've ordered a Motorola Photon Q with modded sim slot to replace my Droid 4, since it seems like there isn't going to be any Droid 5 anytime soon..

Elanzer said:
Nah, the screen is naturally crappy like that and there's no way to fix it. Almost all reviewers of the Droid 4 remarked on it's poor screen. I've ordered a Motorola Photon Q with modded sim slot to replace my Droid 4, since it seems like there isn't going to be any Droid 5 anytime soon..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you have both phones, can you compare the screens and the bulkiness of each one and tell me if the upgrade is worth it?
I have a kinda broken milestone 1 and its build quality is way better, and also it doesnt feel that heavy on my pocket.

BFG9000D said:
When you have both phones, can you compare the screens and the bulkiness of each one and tell me if the upgrade is worth it?
I have a kinda broken milestone 1 and its build quality is way better, and also it doesnt feel that heavy on my pocket.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure. It's going to be a month or so before I get the Photon Q though, as it's getting mailed from the seller in USA to czech republic for modding then to canada to me. Their form factors are almost the same, the things that will make the upgrade worth it are reduced bezel on the display and the CPU/GPU in the Photon Q is nearly twice as fast. A sim modded photon Q is also definitely more "region free" than a Droid 4 in the sense that you can use it on any american provider as well. When I go down to the US I can't actually use my Droid 4 at all because the roaming is not linked to Verizon, so I get forced to bring another device with me.
They will both be bricks with a case on them, but that's the cost of having a nice keyboard.

Just got my Photon Q modded by CornholioGSM for the SIM slot. He did an excellent job and the slot actually looks like it came from the factory.
For the most part I agree with this guy who's also done a comparison between the Droid 4 and Photon Q: http://forum.xda-developers.com/photon-q-4g-lte/general/photon-q-vs-droid-4-mini-review-t2991956
Build quality is far better on the Photon Q. Buttons feel better and general feel in hand is better. The slider kind of springs all the way open after you've opened it half way which feels nicer than the Droid 4 that requires you to push it all the way. The screen is -a lot- better and doesn't have that noticeable ghosting that the Droid 4 has. The software buttons take up some of the screen space vs hardware on the Droid 4, but in full-screened applications (ie: movie players) the buttons are hidden so you can utilize the 0.3in larger screen, although resolution of the 2 phones is the same 960x540. I also noticed that the Photon Q has pocket detection, I've never seen my Droid 4 instantly turn on the moment I pulled it out of my pocket, but this may be a CarbonROM function on my Photon Q.
Performance difference is night and day. Boot time is roughly 1/3 of the Droid 4. Everything opens quite fast and multitasking is easy. Skype in particular took anywhere from 2-3 seconds to load the interface, while on Photon Q it's less than a second. Camera opens instantly on Photon Q instead of waiting 2-3 seconds like Droid 4. For some reason, the camera has always been very slow for me on the Droid 4 regardless of what ROM I'm using. Quality of pictures is better also, seems easier to get a focused picture.
Ran a few benchmarks..
Droid 4 (Lucize JBX kernel, Slimkat 4.4.4 ART):
Antutu (5.6.1)
Stock (1.2GHz CPU, 307MHz GPU): 14776
Overclocked (1.4GHz CPU, 384MHz GPU: 18296
Geekbench
Stock: 342 single / 636 multi
Overclocked: 394 single / 737 multi
Photon Q 4G (arrrghhh kernel, CarbonROM 4.4.4 ART)
Antutu (5.6.1)
Stock (1.5GHz CPU, 400MHz GPU): 19122
Overclocked (2.0GHz CPU, 480MHz GPU): 21130
Geekbench
Stock: 495 single / 792 multi
Overclocked: 521 single / 832 multi
On Antutu, Photon Q has roughly 50% faster CPU scores, and 100% faster GPU scores. For whatever reason, Photon Q does not gain much from overclocking, while Droid 4 gets a good boost. The storage score is also 50% less than the Droid 4, but since Photon Q has only 8gb internal storage you will probably put most things on SD.. this would be why the Antutu scores are so close, individual scores show the Photon Q is much faster.
It's a shame Motorola never properly marketed either phone to a global audience. Droid 4 being stuck on Verizon in US, and Photon Q being stuck on Sprint (unless modded). Photon Q has almost no value, mine was $70 brand new but I have seen them for $20... which is quite funny because it has the same chipset as the US Galaxy S3 that still sells for about $150 on ebay for some reason.

after struggling to find a fully functional droid 4 from ebay again i considered a photon Q only to learn that its impossible to use it on verizon so droid 4 is the only option for me because im not giving up the unlimited data
everything looks nice except the lack of hardware keys on the screen so pretty jealous.
im assuming the photon q only has 3g outside of sprint like the droid 4 outside of verizon?

Puppymang said:
after struggling to find a fully functional droid 4 from ebay again i considered a photon Q only to learn that its impossible to use it on verizon so droid 4 is the only option for me because im not giving up the unlimited data
everything looks nice except the lack of hardware keys on the screen so pretty jealous.
im assuming the photon q only has 3g outside of sprint like the droid 4 outside of verizon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, the Photon Q has a Sprint sim hard-soldered to the board, it doesn't even have a sim slot out of the box, so you can't use the phone at all in any other country unless it's roaming from Sprint.
There is a modification you can do to the phone (or have someone else to do it, CornholioGSM did mine for a 70 euro donation) that consists of removing the sprint-sim and installing a sim slot on the board. The Photon Q with sim mod is completely unlocked and the photon Q also has an unlockable bootloader unlike the Droid 4. It should work on Verizon as it supports all the same CDMA/GSM bands as the Droid 4, however you won't get LTE because the photon Q uses an incompatible band.

Just purchased Note 3, where to start??

Wow, my head is about to explode after the last hour reading different threads on here. I have some experience rooting and using Odin if needed but not sure where to begin. All I want is a less bloated rom of lollipop and runs real smooth. The stock has way too much junk I don't want. Unfortunately I got excited for a min when I saw the dark note 5 rom port but I guess that's not for at&t version because of the locked bootloader. So I looked at a few roms on here and some seem decent enough but not sure which ones I want. Like I said, I want closest thing to stock Android as possible but with the Samsung s pen features also. Also it seems to me I have to downgrade to NC2 and then do the recovery and install the roms from there?
Alot of work coming from a guy who is used to nexus and oneplus one type phones. ..

newtonfb said:
Wow, my head is about to explode after the last hour reading different threads on here. I have some experience rooting and using Odin if needed but not sure where to begin. All I want is a less bloated rom of lollipop and runs real smooth. The stock has way too much junk I don't want. Unfortunately I got excited for a min when I saw the dark note 5 rom port but I guess that's not for at&t version because of the locked bootloader. So I looked at a few roms on here and some seem decent enough but not sure which ones I want. Like I said, I want closest thing to stock Android as possible but with the Samsung s pen features also. Also it seems to me I have to downgrade to NC2 and then do the recovery and install the roms from there?
Alot of work coming from a guy who is used to nexus and oneplus one type phones. ..
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Click to collapse
Yeah, it is a bit more complicated getting things done with this device than some others, unfortunately it seems that is the way a lot of device mfg's are headed.
Once you get the method down it isn't all that difficult to get a ROM installed.
There are 2 ROMS that work really well for me
I'm currently running, and have been for a few weeks now is a S6 Edge port from Carl1961 located HERE
The other is a Darkloard Note 4 port from sanguinevn located HERE
Not that the other few we have aren't good, it's just that these 2 give me best battery/functionality combo
Carl had just reminded me that we are currently faced with a problem that 5.1 and up is a problem for us since we have no bootloader, so we're a bit stuck on how far our fine dev's can take us.

kangi26 said:
Yeah, it is a bit more complicated getting things done with this device than some others, unfortunately it seems that is the way a lot of device mfg's are headed.
Once you get the method down it isn't all that difficult to get a ROM installed.
There are 2 ROMS that work really well for me
I'm currently running, and have been for a few weeks now is a S6 Edge port from Carl1961 located HERE
The other is a Darkloard Note 4 port from sanguinevn located HERE
Not that the other few we have aren't good, it's just that these 2 give me best battery/functionality combo
Carl had just reminded me that we are currently faced with a problem that 5.1 and up is a problem for us since we have no bootloader, so we're a bit stuck on how far our fine dev's can take us.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. How do I root the 5.0 update? Is there a walk thru guide anywhere? I can't find one.
Also is there a big performance difference between this and stock? I disabled some of the stock apps but in still curious about the s6 rom you talked about

Help on Custom ROM and Kernel with Root Access. Please :) Thanks in Advance :)

lol I know I am asking a lot but hoping y'all can help
I had the OPO (One Plus One) and the Op2 is not to my liking because my OPO filled up and ran out of storage. I have over 500 apps (don't ask lol) and use a lot of them.
That being said my OPO finally died. After almost 2 years I accidentally lost it in a buggy and the gears got the case and phone quite well unusable. I used to LOVE Samsung because of the external SD and easy ROM flashing with included root (superuser) in the rom. The S6 is nice but here we go again no external SD. The Note 5 is nice, but again no External SD.,
Sooooo.... Onto the Note 4. Quad core because t-mobile does not have the octa-core version for sale. Which is cool in many benchmarks I see ran for it the Snapdragon outperforms the Exyos. Also 4gb memory vs 3gb is not that much to write home about I won't miss too much. PLUS the Note 5 has no IR emitter for remote use so yea. I liked that feature. NOTE 4 IT IS.
The more I read up on it though the more I find issues and I want to be sure I can resolve them NOW vs later. Did many searches here so please do not tell me to search. Been there done that. I am overwhelmed and actually pretty happy that there is so much good development for the phone. But I find myself hours and hours of reading and still on the sideline wondering what I want.
Thus I figured I would ask you all, who have been there done that and find out what the differences are in what I want and what would fit me best. NOTE THIS IS A NOT WHATS BETTER THAN OTHER THREAD - JUST WANT SOME FACTS AND IDEAS WHAT WOULD SUIT ME BEST IN CHOOSING A CUSTOM ROM WITH ROOT ACCESS BUILT IN HOPEFULLY AND A KERNEL TO GO WITH THAT ROM.
I will be adding a zerolemon extended battery. I know after reading I need a Rom and/or kernel that supports this to show the right battery percentage. This has to be factored in.
Here's some other stuff I would like (not need, just a wish list) that may help you find me a nice rom and kernel combo. REMEMBER I AM JUST ASKING WHAT YOU THINK WOULD WORK FOR WHAT I NEED/WANT AND WHY. Thanks in advance for the help.
I would LIKE a nice black background texting and phone and contact look. In my Galaxy S4 I had a few years back one rom I installed was black with neon phone pad keys and a neon look to the contacts and even the texting was black with yellow and blue and red and green text bubbles - was so cool. I HATE white backgrounds or light color backgrounds, but alas if there is nothing avail it is what it is. I do use swiftkey and it has some cool dark keyboards but I mean the actual texting app and phone screen backgrounds.
As stated need a rom/kernel that has extended battery support
Do NOT need all the fancy CPU tweaks. Its cool to overclock and such but not needed. Either way - with or without overclocking is cool. I have rom toolbox pro so I can do most anything in there anyways.
Would LOVE extended volume controls and extended power menu so I have screenshot and boot into recovery and such on the power menu - but hey isn't that what xposed framework is for and I just install an app there that does it. lol Been there done that I LOVE xposed - but if a rom has this built in why not get it and save me a step
Speaking of xposed do any roms have xposed pre-installed? I know, asking for a lot here but if some do please top of the list. Otherwise will install xposed myself That's why I am doing a custom recovery. DO YOU suggest CWM or TWRP or?
NEED TO KNOW HOW ROM WORKS. Some I see are based on 5.1 lollipop some on older 4.4. I am all for upgrading to 5.1 (woohoo) my OPO was on 5.1 and loved it. I am thinking its easy to keep phone NO updates brand new out of box keep the 4.4 stock and put my own recovery and I can use a custom rom to jump to 5.1 so that way there is NO Samsung or t-mobile updates to lock anything. I remember in my Galaxy s4 my 1st one I made the MISTAKE of upgrading the stock o/s then my custom recovery showed the yellow 1 in the corner after I added my custom rom. After that did the rom 1st NO system updates - I figure its best to do the same here with Note 4 right? or??? PLUS I read the note 4 gets kinda buggy on 5.1 so hoping some awesome developers have fixed this and maybe some newer roms or older roms now updated have fixed this and the note 4 does 5.1 as smooth as 4.4 lol
Any other info? I am not locked on the Zerolemon - any ideas there too would help - but amazon has it for $55 now thats cheap for zerolemon and it has a case like otterbox with the belt clip so yayyyy Ultimately I would LOVE a waterproof case with extended battery but been searching a while for that no luck lol.
Thanks again people. I just got tired of searching all the roms and the reading hundreds of posts - some thousands of posts for extended battery support, then there's 100 ideas on best kernel to match and I find myself 20 pages from the last thread trying to see the most recent posts from past month or 2 seeing what is best now vs what was best when the rom 1st came out and comparing which is really best and its just too UGH! I am a technical guy and will be here for weeks checking everything out. I am finally just asking for your advice and what you think is best for what I want and narrow down my search a lil to keep me from being here so long doing it on my own.
MAINLY I AM JUST ASKING AFTER TRYING SEVERAL ROM AND KERNEL COMBINATIONS WHICH DO YOU FEEL ARE BEST SUITED FOR MY NEEDS AND WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND AND WHY - I DON'T WANT THIS IS BETTER THAN THIS JUST RECOMMENDATIONS ON GOOD ROMS WITH A KERNEL FOR THAT ROM OR MAYBE STAY STOCK KERNEL IDK.... U TELL ME WHAT YOU ALL FOUND THAT WORKS GOOD. THAT FIT THE ABOVE CRITERIA AND I WILL LOOK AT ALL AND CHOOSE WHAT I WANT.

Anyone lol. Again I am open to any rom which can do above what I need done. I just rather you aLl post what works for you to make it easier to narrow down my searches lol