4G Android phone megathread

[jimv]

The new Android phone plot thickens - Google is rolling out its very own wireless service. At this time only available on the Nexus6.  Might save enough $$ to justify the unsubsidized cost of the phone. Or not. Early adoption is not typical for me, but maybe this time.....

 

[crystalline]

The new Android phone plot thickens - Google is rolling out its very own wireless service. At this time only available on the Nexus6.  Might save enough $$ to justify the unsubsidized cost of the phone. Or not. Early adoption is not typical for me, but maybe this time.....

Yeah, this is very interesting.

Project Fi aims to put you on the best network wherever you go. As you move around, the best network for you might be a Wi-Fi hotspot or a specific 4G LTE network. We developed new technology that gives you better coverage by intelligently connecting you to the fastest available network at your location whether it's Wi-Fi or one of our two partner LTE networks.

THIS is what we have been waiting for. Every phone does wifi/data switching poorly now. Google could turn cellular service on its head- IF they get the software right. They have a mixed track record on executing game changers like this. But I think their strategy is good: start small, with one device you control. Partner with two low-end but LTE carriers. Perfect it, then roll out to everyone.

Verizon and AT&T are going to be going all out to stop this. Google's service is the kind of disruptive innovation that could destroy their profits.

Edit: but I pooh-poohed the idea of a touchscreen keyboard when the iPhone was announced, so clearly my prediction track record is poor.

 

[jimv]

Yeah, this is very interesting.


THIS is what we have been waiting for. Every phone does wifi/data switching poorly now. Google could turn cellular service on its head- IF they get the software right. They have a mixed track record on executing game changers like this. But I think their strategy is good: start small, with one device you control. Partner with two low-end but LTE carriers. Perfect it, then roll out to everyone.

Verizon and AT&T are going to be going all out to stop this. Google's service is the kind of disruptive innovation that could destroy their profits.

I don't think Google's first choice would be to partner with the low end LTE carriers, Verizon and AT&T probably wanted no part of this and Google settled for whoever was left

 

[Reardon's Beard]

I love everything about Project Fi except (potentially) the hardware.

 

[saintnick912]

The Nexus 6 thing is a nice way to keep the rollout limited.  There are only so many people who will want to front that much for that phone, and those people will probably give good feedback on the initial service.  Cuts down some of the growing pains of ramping up to full volume out of the gate.
 
Much like Ting I think this has potential to shake up the market for people on the lower end of the data-use spectrum.  The "I use 10GB a month" crowd will continue to have to cling to whatever loophole/grandfather deal.

 

[jayhoz]

http://goo.gl/QNrur4

 

[smastroyin]

Anyone done Lollipop for a VZW G3 yet?  I have heard all of the mixed reviews and lollipop has negatively affected the performance (battery life and speed) of my 2012 Nexus 7.   Curious about any experience, if it's better than the initial rollout, etc.

 

[SumnerH]

I just got it on my G2 on AT&T.  After fixing all the settings it broke, battery life is back to being decent.  But the new UI is pretty uninspiring, so far, and the keyboard seems worse at interpreting swipes correctly.  And it has significant issues pausing music when bluetooth is disconnected and resuming after phone calls (sometimes it works, but sometimes it flakes out and starts playing stuff out loud or fails to resume playback when it should).

 

[jayhoz]

I tried to install it, but had forgotten that I had a customer recovery and it soft bricked my phone.  I restored the phone and haven't had the time or energy to figure out how to install it properly.

 

[PortlandSoxFan]

I have a Nexus 6 and wouldn't even consider Project Fi.  First of all, where I live both T-Mo and Sprint are awful.  But even if they were both great, I'm paying $43 for unlimited talk/text and 'unlimited' data (in reality 3.5 gigs of LTE before throttling).  I only use about 2 gig a month; but even that would cost more than what I currently pay.

 

[timlinin8th]

Anyone done Lollipop for a VZW G3 yet?  I have heard all of the mixed reviews and lollipop has negatively affected the performance (battery life and speed) of my 2012 Nexus 7.   Curious about any experience, if it's better than the initial rollout, etc.

I did. I get pretty severe lag on opening webpages when I'm on wifi. Seems like some weird DNS issue, like it takes forever to resolve a page because once the page starts to load its up in a flash. Battery life seems a little less but im wondering if that is related to the fact the phone is working harder to load pages when I'm on wifi (which is 3/4 of the time since I have limited data)

 

[timlinin8th]

Btw, not that its a "bug" but my music player looked really nice on my lock screen before, and I guess google eliminated widgets on the lock screen in favor of little notification blocks because now my player controls on the lockscreen suck.

On the whole, find lollipop to be a step backwards.

 

[DanoooME]

Evidently there have been many issues with the M8.  My wife has been having issues with hers and Verizon offered to upgrade her to a Droid Turbo (basically) for free, even though she was nowhere near the time for an upgrade, because I guess the phone has been having a lot of problems.  I love my Droid Turbo, so if you are a VZ customer with a buggy M8, you might be able to upgrade.

 

[Foulkey Reese]

The Droid Turbo is a great phone. Still waiting for that Lollipop update though. And waiting..and waiting.

 

[Couperin47]

The Droid Turbo is a great phone. Still waiting for that Lollipop update though. And waiting..and waiting.

 
From all reports, dreading is more appropriate. In my case the carrier is US Cellular who are becoming famous for finally issuing updates close to a year after everyone else, when they don't just abandon the promised update completely. In this case I'm actually glad.

 

[JerBear]

Evidently there have been many issues with the M8.  My wife has been having issues with hers and Verizon offered to upgrade her to a Droid Turbo (basically) for free, even though she was nowhere near the time for an upgrade, because I guess the phone has been having a lot of problems.  I love my Droid Turbo, so if you are a VZ customer with a buggy M8, you might be able to upgrade.

M8 or M9?

 

[DanoooME]

M8 or M9?

 
She had an M8.  Is the M9 even out yet?

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

M9s are out on some markets. There is some talk of the M9s overheating with the new Qualcomm 810 chip.

Samsung is not using Qualcomm chips in their new S6.

 

[drbretto]

That's why I'm switching from my M8 to an LG G4 asap. They dropped it down to the 808, which, let's be honest, is perfectly fine.
 
For those with the Lollipop update, I had read that it is supposed to save a decent amount of battery power, does that seem to be noticeable to anyone?

 

[smastroyin]

I have had the opposite experience on my Nexus 7 which is part of why I don't want to update my LG G3.  Although part of me wants to update it and hope it bricks to see if I can get a G4.

 

[Traut]

The Droid Turbo is a great phone. Still waiting for that Lollipop update though. And waiting..and waiting.

I have lollipop on the X. Aside from different notification cards, I'm not sure it is much if any different than what I had before. 

 

[SumnerH]

That's why I'm switching from my M8 to an LG G4 asap. They dropped it down to the 808, which, let's be honest, is perfectly fine.
 
For those with the Lollipop update, I had read that it is supposed to save a decent amount of battery power, does that seem to be noticeable to anyone?

 
Out of the box the upgrade toggled all sorts of junk into power (and data) guzzling mode and was hemorrhaging electrons, but once I fixed all that again it seems about as efficient as Kit Kat was--not noticeably worse, anyway, though it's not noticeably better either.

 

[wibi]

Anyone having issues with Pocketcasts only downloading half the podcast but showing it as fully downloaded?  My podcasts (doesnt matter which one) will play about halfway and then quit and mark the podcast as played.  I can redownload it via the cell network but its kind of a pain in the ass when you are in a no cell coverage place and your podcast just craps out.

 

[Foulkey Reese]

Anyone having issues with Pocketcasts only downloading half the podcast but showing it as fully downloaded?  My podcasts (doesnt matter which one) will play about halfway and then quit and mark the podcast as played.  I can redownload it via the cell network but its kind of a pain in the ass when you are in a no cell coverage place and your podcast just craps out.

No, and I use the app non stop.
 
Maybe uninstall and reinstall?

 

[Bleedred]

I'm about to upgrade my Samsung Galaxy III to the New Galaxy VI.   I have a verizon account share plan (5 phones total) and I've always bought the phone at the Verizon stores, on a contract.   I have no problem with this, but want to avoid any particularly egregious stupid purchases.  Any general comment?

 

[PortlandSoxFan]

If you like Android and are looking for a bargain, find a Nexus 4.  I had one lying around that I am setting up for  someone, and after a factory reset and Lollipop update, this thing is getting sick battery life.  It has been off the charger since 4:00 yesterday afternoon and is still at 41%...and is running very smooth.  Installed the Now launcher and that's about it.
 
Even with lollipop, you can root it and enable LTE (I had LTE enabled when it was my daily driver for over a year).

 

[SumnerH]

If you like Android and are looking for a bargain, find a Nexus 4.  I had one lying around that I am setting up for  someone, and after a factory reset and Lollipop update, this thing is getting sick battery life.  It has been off the charger since 4:00 yesterday afternoon and is still at 41%...

 
That is not good at all, unless you've been watching lots of movies or something.

 

[PortlandSoxFan]

as a smartphone owner since 2006 or so, and a former daily user of the Nexus 4....that's VERY good.  59% in 21 hours on a smartphone with moderate usage?

 

[drbretto]

as a smartphone owner since 2006 or so, and a former daily user of the Nexus 4....that's VERY good.  59% in 21 hours on a smartphone with moderate usage?

 
 
From your original post, it sounds like you're saying ti went through 59% battery life while idle.

 

[drbretto]

I'm still going to grab an LG G4. It's still got the best combination of features that I'm looking for. But I'm disappointed with the reports about the battery life. Everything I had read before was suggesting that both 5.0 and LG each made huge steps forward in battery life, both with improvements on the screen and cutting down on useless apps running in the background. Then they threw in a 3000mah battery to boot but the test have it as slightly worse battery life than anyone.
 
My cellphones get heavy use. I do a lot of gaming, texting and browsing. Cellphones today barely get me through a full day. I don't want to lug around a second battery and I'm not going to buy a nice looking phone so I can add one of those bulk battery packs to it.
 
It's time for an advancement in battery efficiency, dammit! 

 

[SumnerH]

as a smartphone owner since 2006 or so, and a former daily user of the Nexus 4....that's VERY good.  59% in 21 hours on a smartphone with moderate usage?

 
Being at 59% after a day of moderate usage would be okay.  Being DOWN 59% to 41% is pretty subpar.  If I don't charge it one night, I generally expect to be in 70s when I leave work the 2nd day--with the caveat that since I didn't bother charging it, the first day's usage was probably pretty light (if I'd burned significant battery I would have charged it the first night).

 

[PortlandSoxFan]

Well I don't know what phone you're using, but for every smartphone I've ever had, if I don't plug it in overnight I'm pretty much sunk by mid afternoon on the second day.  Evidently every Android phone I've ever had is way shittier than yours.
 
As a comparison, I have a Nexus 6 that has been unplugged since 6 AM also with moderate usage, and I'm at 69% right now.  And I don't consider that bad (especially as it will be fully charged after my 40 minute drive home)

 

[SumnerH]

Well I don't know what phone you're using, but for every smartphone I've ever had, if I don't plug it in overnight I'm pretty much sunk by mid afternoon on the second day.  Evidently every Android phone I've ever had is way shittier than yours.
 
As a comparison, I have a Nexus 6 that has been unplugged since 6 AM also with moderate usage, and I'm at 69% right now.  And I don't consider that bad (especially as it will be fully charged after my 40 minute drive home)

My LG G2 is at 96% right now; it hasn't been plugged in since before work. I've made 3 phone calls and listened to about 30 minutes of music and done some minimal texting/browsing; I'd call it more light usage than moderate, but it hasn't been completely idle.

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

Even Sumner's phone is smarter than everyone else's.

 

[24JoshuaPoint]

So i've been on a Galaxy S3 for a couple years after leaving Apple and i've been completely content with it. My contract is ready for an upgraded phone in about two weeks. I'd probably just jump on an S6 but i noticed the battery can't be removed. This is kind of a deal breaker as i've always carried a spare just in case i'm in the woods or on an extended bike trip or god forbid another hurricane.
 
So i guess it's either S5 or LG G3? Are there any others i should consider that AT&T would give me a good deal on with a new contract?
 
 
ed-seems like the S5 is pretty much the winner

 

[PortlandSoxFan]

Plus the battery in his phone is much larger than the battery in the Nexus 4, so it's kind of apples and oranges.

 

[Foulkey Reese]

I left for work this morning with 85% battery and I listened to pod-casts, played Clash of Clans, and did some texting and the battery is now at 93%.
 
Take that Sumner.

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

Google's Project Fi invites are starting to roll out.  There's some grumbling about Google Voice integration - some features are lost.
 
articles  here and here.
 
 
I plan on switching to Fi and getting a Nexus 6 once I get an invite. It makes sense for my usage/needs.

 

[PortlandSoxFan]

I still cling to my GV number and it's what I have given out for years (very handy since I went from VZW to T-Mobile to Net10 in the past 3 years).  As far as what is 'lost'...who uses Google Talk still??  I've been using Hangouts to send GV texts for some time now, and it's no issue.
 
Still not switching to Fi, though...Net10 is still a much better deal for me

 

[PortlandSoxFan]

Monbo; if you do go with the Nexus 6, I just found a pretty good mount for it (or any large format phone).  
 
With all of my cars, I always put in a Panavise in dash mount (it bolts in with one of the radio bolts and is custom fit for your vehicle).  For the phone mount itself I went with the Ram Mount Universal X grip large phone holder, the short arm, and the AMPS 1 inch ball to go on the mount.
 

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

Monbo; if you do go with the Nexus 6, I just found a pretty good mount for it (or any large format phone).  
 
With all of my cars, I always put in a Panavise in dash mount (it bolts in with one of the radio bolts and is custom fit for your vehicle).  For the phone mount itself I went with the Ram Mount Universal X grip large phone holder, the short arm, and the AMPS 1 inch ball to go on the mount.
 

 
 
thanks
 
I'm already a ProClips fanboy.  I've used their mounts for my last two phones. I have the part that is specific for my car - I just need to by a new phone mount specific for the Nexus. I like the proclips as it comes with a built-in charger.
 

 

[PortlandSoxFan]

Net10 just updated their plan to 5 gigs of 4g/LTE on the 'unlimited' plan from 3.5 gig for BYOD customers, making the best plan even better if you forgo the subsidized device route.
 
So for 4 phones (Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Iphone 5), I'm paying $174/month total for unlimited talk, text, and 5 gigs high speed data each month on each phone.
 
That same plan on AT&T (the network I'm using) if you BYOD is $210 before fees.  $310 a month if you do a 2 year contract and get a phone through them.

 

[Orange Julia]

I love my Samsung Galaxy 5 but I can't update any apps anymore, nor can I add any apps because I have run out of internal space. I have moved everything I can over to the SD Card and it still isn't enough. I know that this is a pretty standard issue as all the google apps won't run on the SD card but short of rooting the phone (which I'm not really opposed to but I've never done it) is there anything I can do? I have already taken probably half the apps I had on my SG3 off the phone and I am still having space issues.

 

[Caspir]

Can't vouch for it, but some forums say dialing *#9900# on the phone and then selecting "delete dumpstate/logcat" from the menu will solve the problem. Might be worth exploring a little.

 

[Orange Julia]

I tried that. It didn't do anything. I have dumped all my media files on the chance that some of them were taking up internal RAM space. I love that I have an all day battery life on this thing, but paying over $100 a month for unlimited data when I can't put the Washington Post app back on (or any other app) is kind of shitty.

 

[saintnick912]

Another thing to check is to go into the Settings->Apps and look for ones you use a lot, then do "Clear Cache" on them.  I had 1GB+ caches on a couple of apps at one point, Chrome and Tapatalk among them.  It's also possible that your camera is recording to the internal memory.  My last phone was tight on space (no SD card possible) and those were the biggest cleanups I found.

 

[Marceline]

You can also go into Settings->Storage and see what's using space by category (pics, apps, cache, downloads) which can help isolate what is using all the space.
 
Just to echo what saintnick said, your web browser (chrome, firefox, or whatever) cache will grow to enormous levels if you don't regularly clear it out, and the same with tapatalk if you use the sosh app. Those should be cleared out regularly. I'd be willing to bet you can clear out enough space just from those two things alone.

 

[Orange Julia]

Clearing the caches seems to have helped a great deal. I will keep on top of that going forward, although I don't understand why it wasn't an issue on my SG3. I was able to update some apps on my phone and put on the washington post app, but my visual voice mail app still isn't getting any voice mails. I am not sure what the problem is there--last week I got a message that because of lack of space I wouldn't be able to download any vm to that app, and now I have space but it still isn't downloading.
 
Thanks, guys.

 

[Marceline]

Clearing the caches seems to have helped a great deal. I will keep on top of that going forward, although I don't understand why it wasn't an issue on my SG3. I was able to update some apps on my phone and put on the washington post app, but my visual voice mail app still isn't getting any voice mails. I am not sure what the problem is there--last week I got a message that because of lack of space I wouldn't be able to download any vm to that app, and now I have space but it still isn't downloading.
 
Thanks, guys.

 
One thing you could also try, for future maintenance, is an app I just discovered today called Avast GrimeFighter (free).
 
I just tested it now on my phone and it gives a great visual view of all the apps and files that are using the most space and makes it really easy to clean everything out. They have a SafeClean where the app will automatically clean out caches and other files that can be safely deleted, plus an advanced view if you want to try to pare things down even further.

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

Google says it will take until mid summer to get Project Fi invites out to all who've requested them.