4G Android phone megathread

Seven Costanza

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Apr 11, 2007
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Well, if anything, I learned my lesson about getting the newest, greatest thing the day it comes out.

I'm not eligible for an upgrade until December. Previously I had always grabbed something the very day I was eligible, but this time I'm going to be more patient and wait for something like the Nexus or the SIII that will actually get some timely updates. Also, the fact that my unlimited 4g goes away when I get a new phone will help me wait.
 

Zomp

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Aug 28, 2006
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So my Droid 2 wont charge. Any ideas?

Its plugged in, and there is a connection being made because when I unplug the phone from the wire the computer recognizes that I unplugged it.
 

EddieYost

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Jul 15, 2005
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So my Droid 2 wont charge. Any ideas?

Its plugged in, and there is a connection being made because when I unplug the phone from the wire the computer recognizes that I unplugged it.
Try plugging it in to a wall jack.
Try a different cable.
Try gently cleaning the port.

If it turns out the be that the charging port is fried and you don't want a new phone, you can buy an extra battery and a wall unit to charge the battery in on eBay or Amazon for short money. Only issue there is that you have to power down the phone to swap batteries.
 

Foulkey Reese

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Apr 12, 2006
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So this is pretty interesting.

Siri vs. Jellybean

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kDsOtdRtG0Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

smastroyin

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Jellybean already has me thinking about cancelling the s3 and getting a nexus...I don't even care that much about voice stuff, it is just so much cleaner than any of the manufacturer roms
 

Murderer's Crow

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Jul 15, 2005
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So this is pretty interesting.

Siri vs. Jellybean

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kDsOtdRtG0Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I don't think you can actually make that comparison right now. Those Siri speeds are pretty accurate, but let's see how Google assistant performs when more than one person is using the servers at a time. Also, the 4S hardware clearly isn't going to be as fast as one of the newer Androids.
 

glennhoffmania

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Jellybean already has me thinking about cancelling the s3 and getting a nexus...I don't even care that much about voice stuff, it is just so much cleaner than any of the manufacturer roms
I'm confused. Other phones won't get it too?
 

smastroyin

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I'm confused. Other phones won't get it too?
Sure, maybe by the time key lime pie is rolling out.

The point is that I doubt Samsung is going to drop touchwiz and s-voice for clean jellybean. It will be their version of it.
 

BrazilianSoxFan

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Also, the 4S hardware clearly isn't going to be as fast as one of the newer Androids.
If I'm not mistaken, the android in the video was a Galaxy Nexus, but with the a preview version of Android 4.1. Since the Nexus is only 1-2 months newer, the hardware shouldn't be a differentiator.
 

Orange Julia

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Has there been any news that Tmobile might be getting the Nexus? I saw a post online about it last month, that it was a maybe, but not much else since.
 

smastroyin

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You can buy an unlocked Nexus from Google directly for $350. That's $200 more than you can get a subsidized one at Verizon for nowadays but no new contract, just activate and go.

Since you are Tmobile your network is already GSM and HSPA+ so you can use this no problem.
 

Orange Julia

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Thanks SMAS! considering that a 2 year contract w/ Tmobile and a subsidized Galaxy III is going to cost me $325, this seems like a bargain to me. I don't quite get the unlocked thing, though. So does that mean that if i should leave Tmobile at some point, i can use it with another carrier?
 

smastroyin

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You can go to any GSM carrier (currently AT&T is the only other one in the US). It will also travel overseas should that opportunity to be the Queen's personal gardener come through.
 

Orange Julia

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You can go to any GSM carrier (currently AT&T is the only other one in the US). It will also travel overseas should that opportunity to be the Queen's personal gardener come through.
She is actually hiring a house manager. The pay sucks though, about $70K US TO MANAGE THE QUEENS HOUSES and CASTLES?!

Back on message, how does one activate one of these unlocked phones? Do i just go to the Tmobile store, or is it something i can do in the privacy of my own home? also, can someone tell me if this is bigger than the Galaxy III because that phone looks kind of huge. Thanks for the advice!
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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Mar 24, 2008
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I don't think you can actually make that comparison right now. Those Siri speeds are pretty accurate, but let's see how Google assistant performs when more than one person is using the servers at a time. Also, the 4S hardware clearly isn't going to be as fast as one of the newer Androids.
I'm not sure it's a great comparison either, but one note here is that Google's Voice Recognition actually appears to be native to the phone not requiring it to go to a central server's like Apple's Siri. If you're offline and wanted to write e-mails for example, full voice dictation still actually works. I'm guessing this is why Google Now is faster than Siri. That page was kind of ridiculous too, it was like a quarter second victory yet he proclaims Now to be a crushing defeat over Siri. I'm more interested in how many commands each knows how to take. It was clear for that demo that it was all very basic commands he knew both phones could handle except for the pictures one.
 

PortlandSoxFan

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I'm not getting the same results; but it could be my internet here in the office. I'll let you know when I'm on 3g/4g if it is that fast.

One cool thing if you have Google Now open, when it hears you say 'Google' you can then speak your question without tapping anything.

The new notifications are awesome; and it just seems everything is crisper...looks like the font is different.

It is definitely WAY snappier...and I have every app I had installed before (from a rooted stock 4.04 build)
 

glennhoffmania

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Sure, maybe by the time key lime pie is rolling out.

The point is that I doubt Samsung is going to drop touchwiz and s-voice for clean jellybean. It will be their version of it.
Got it. Thanks. What about HTC? I'm pretty sure I'm getting an Evo on Sunday but I haven't ruled out the Nexus yet.
 

PortlandSoxFan

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I'm going to Lake George for a week, leaving tonight. I put in a calendar entry for vacation starting at 5:30, location of Lake George. Google automatically notified me that it was time to leave:



[sharedmedia=gallery:images:941]
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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http://www.droid-life.com/2012/06/29/android-pdk-could-help-manufacturers-update-devices-faster-than-ever/

This could potentially save a ton of time for hardware manufacturers to update phones when there are new releases. Seems like it's Androids way of trying to address fragmentation issues.
 

Monbo Jumbo

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Judge OKs Apple injunction on Samsung's Nexus phone


More bad news for Samsung in its legal battle with Apple: A U.S. district judge has just granted Apple a preliminary injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Nexus phone.
That's the same device Google handed out to developers just a couple of days ago at its I/O conference. Apple had requested an injunction against the smartphone in February, alleging that it infringed on several of its patents. An injunction would keep the Samsung device from being sold in stores in the U.S.

...
 

bsj

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Dec 6, 2003
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This is getting fucking ridiculous.

As I have mentioned before, my Evo 4G (which I still love damnit) has run its contract and I am now openly phone shopping. But I really want to wait until something amazing comes along, something that shakes up the industry as much as the Evo 4G did in the summer of 2010.

The SIII looks good. The Nexus looked quite good. But not sure if either were going to get me to jump quite yet.
 

Corsi

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ICS for the Razr can now be pulled/downloaded manually. Upgrading as we speak.
 

Fratboy

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I'm upgrading right now. The software downloaded just fine and installed, but the whole thing is stalled while "starting applications." I'd reboot, but I'm afraid.
 

Foulkey Reese

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I'm not getting the same results; but it could be my internet here in the office. I'll let you know when I'm on 3g/4g if it is that fast.

One cool thing if you have Google Now open, when it hears you say 'Google' you can then speak your question without tapping anything.

The new notifications are awesome; and it just seems everything is crisper...looks like the font is different.

It is definitely WAY snappier...and I have every app I had installed before (from a rooted stock 4.04 build)
I kept getting stuck in a boot loop when I tried to install this so I gave up and restored my backup. I'll wait for a more stable build from the source code.
 

Fratboy

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I did a reboot and everything's coming over just fine. Battery life seems to be a little issue at the beginning here, but I did some scouring, and wiped the cache partition. I think a few power cycles will take care of it. This looks very similar to what I experienced with the Nexus so far, but with some of the Moto features I liked.

Battery really is draining though. Any other ideas?
 

gtg807y

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Dec 31, 2006
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I'm liking it so far, but I wish they'd go with a different color scheme. I didn't like the previous version's colors either. At least give me a couple of options (and if there are options and I haven't found it, let me know). That's a minor complaint, though.

My battery seems to be going pretty fast as well, and I haven't even been using it as much this morning as I usually do.
 

Fratboy

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Okay, the factory reset is exactly what I needed to do here. Everything came back really easily, and then it was just the normal tweaking from there. The email functionality I didn't like in the Nexus is still there, so I'll have to get used to that, but I'll tell you, this thing FLIES on ICS. With Gingerbread, I got a Quadrant of about 1850. Now I get a Quadrant of about 2850. Impressive performance boost, and the factory reset totally fixes the battery leak too. Battery life on this is going to be SICK. Worth the troubles for the upgrade.

Now when am I gonna get Jellybean?
 

ypioca

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Apr 18, 2007
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Stay off all tech blogs then.
God damn yes. I'm trying to decide between iPhone and ICS, and sifting through the endless cavalcade of douchebags claiming the competitor is shit is exhausting. They're all unbelievable devices, but people just want to justify their own purchase so much. It's borderline retarded behavior.
 

glennhoffmania

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Just got my Evo this past weekend and here is my preliminary non-technical review from the perspective of an IT idiot. Overall the phone is great. I definitely can tell that it's faster than the old Evo and the battery is awesome so far. I charged it last night and have been playing with it all morning (music, games, email, playing with settings) and it's still almost 100% charged. Huge improvement over the old Evo. The setup is better in some ways and worse in others but overall I'd say it's better. Some functions don't seem as capatible, such as my calendar snooze app doesn't work as well and my earphones no longer allow me to skip songs with the buttons. But being able to get Chrome is awesome and the phone is definitely pretty cool.

My main beef is that Sprint tried to charged me $36 "activation" fees. I've never paid this before even with Sprint. I called up to dispute it and eventually got them to give me a credit but it wasn't easy. But even if I had to pay it, for $200 plus another $65 back for turning in my old phone it's a pretty sweet deal. Now I just need to get a non-anti-glare screen protector and figure out how to get in on there without a bunch of huge bubbles.
 

jayhoz

Ronald Bartel
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Jul 19, 2005
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Get a film with a gas permeable membrane and the bubbles disappear after a day. I think Wrapsol makes theirs this way.
 

smastroyin

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my earphones no longer allow me to skip songs with the buttons.
I've never used an HTC android phone, but I am assuming this is a setting within the music player. It might be under bluetooth settings within the player itself.
 

glennhoffmania

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I've never used an HTC android phone, but I am assuming this is a setting within the music player. It might be under bluetooth settings within the player itself.
I spent a lot of time on this issue when I first got my Evo two years ago. I talked to several Sprint/phone people and tried to find answers online. At the time the consensus was there were no earphones available that essentially mimicked the iPhone earphone capabilities. But if I used iPhone earphones on my old Evo, I could redial the last number called, pause songs and skip to the next one. I couldn't adjust the volume or go back a song. Now I can't skip but I can still redial and pause. I asked about this at the Sprint store and they weren't aware of any better options at this point.

I'm going to try different music players tonight and see if that makes a difference.
 

Three10toLeft

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Oct 2, 2008
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I spent a lot of time on this issue when I first got my Evo two years ago. I talked to several Sprint/phone people and tried to find answers online. At the time the consensus was there were no earphones available that essentially mimicked the iPhone earphone capabilities. But if I used iPhone earphones on my old Evo, I could redial the last number called, pause songs and skip to the next one. I couldn't adjust the volume or go back a song. Now I can't skip but I can still redial and pause. I asked about this at the Sprint store and they weren't aware of any better options at this point.

I'm going to try different music players tonight and see if that makes a difference.
These earbuds might work for you, although they are wired.

http://www.klipsch.com/image-S4A-headphones