I am NEVER considering a carrier phone again

[thecapsaicinkid]

After going Nexus, carrier phones, or manufacturer skinned phones are just horrible. Carriers have no business being anything other than the provider of my wireless service. I don't want your gaudy logos, your garbage apps and I certainly don't want my updates to come from you. Same goes for manufacturers, I want Android, from Google. I don't want Android plus whatever ui kludges you deem appropriate on top. The same way I don't want my laptop OS to come from whoever made the hardware or my isp's logo on the cover.

If LTE just reinforces this control then quite frankly, you can keep it. I kinda feel like people deserve this mess of carrier controlled devices. Google release the Nexus 4, a device completely free of any carrier influence, and what did people say? Waaah no LTE! A technology so utterly entwined with carrier control. I guess as long as carriers keep giving people phones they can't afford, it's all good.

[RockinZ28]

Or just root and put a rom of your choice on...

[WelshBloke]

Originally Posted by thecapsaicinkid

After going Nexus, carrier phones, or manufacturer skinned phones are just horrible. Carriers have no business being anything other than the provider of my wireless service. I don't want your gaudy logos, your garbage apps and I certainly don't want my updates to come from you. Same goes for manufacturers, I want Android, from Google. I don't want Android plus whatever ui kludges you deem appropriate on top. The same way I don't want my laptop OS to come from whoever made the hardware or my isp's logo on the cover.

...

Well I dont want to rely on Microsoft for my drivers.

I agree about the carriers though.

[Geekbabe]

Originally Posted by RockinZ28

Or just root and put a rom of your choice on...

QFT! It is very easy to eliminate unwanted bloat from android devices. As far as skins that the device manufacturer puts on a device, some of them are quite good these days.Aside from obtaining root, I left my Galaxy SIII pretty much stock & will do the same with my Note 2.

[WelshBloke]

Originally Posted by Geekbabe

QFT! It is very easy to eliminate unwanted bloat from android devices. As far as skins that the device manufacturer puts on a device, some of them are quite good these days.Aside from obtaining root, I left my Galaxy SIII pretty much stock & will do the same with my Note 2.

Touchwiz launcher is a bit limited though, not that that's hard to change. But I agree that there's a bunch of nice stuff that comes with the stock rom (multi windows, floating video, etc)

[gorcorps]

I understand the speed of release thing, but honestly I don't care for stock Android at all. Not that I like the carrier ones more, but stock is overblown. I would say out of the box my Nexus 7 was a disappointment. It was slow, choppy, and frankly not worth using at first. But I found some roms for it that helped smooth it out, yet still increased battery life. So it didnt even matter that it was stock because I still needed the community to fix what Google/Asus didn't bother optimizing.

That is the only nexus device I've had, but if that's how stock Android performs on all devices then why do people love it so much? All this has shown me is that if it wasn't for the community fixing stuff, I would be leaving android in the dust.

[s44]

The problem is that stock 4.2 is worse than properly modded 4.1.

I hope KLP basically pretends stuff like the fake toggles (now even *less* intuitive in 4.2.2!) of JB2 never happened. C'mon Google, TW and CM have done that right forever now.

[Plester]

Agree 100%. After many years on att first with iphones then a galaxy s and an atrix, both unlocked, rooted and running custom ROMs (after a long wait with the atrix to get an unlocked bootloader), i moved to a galaxy nexus and straight talk, and recently got my wife a nexus 4 (took some time to take the iPacifier away). Long story short, I firmly believe in the nexus ecosystem.

To be clear i run custom ROMs on my nexus and i unlocked and rooted the wife's nexus 4. The quality and quantity of development for nexus devices is significantly more robust than for anything else including galaxy phones. Snoop around on xda and maybe s3 development starts to approach nexus development but nothing else does.

Sure I might grab a used s3, or one x if it were cheap just to play but nexus and prepaid make too much sense. The hardware is always excellent and being free of the motherf#@%king major carriers is too good to be true.

[dguy6789]

The benefits of being on Verizon far, far outweigh the benefits of using something like a Nexus 4 anywhere else. I don't care that my phone has a few apps (that can be removed or disabled if I am really bothered by them sitting in my app drawer doing nothing at all thaaat much) or that it has a Verizon logo on the outside. I care about my phone being reliable and fast for calls and data without exception and Verizon does a better job of delivering that than any carrier and that is worth more than being a month ahead on an Android update that most people can't tell what it even does.

[Hulk]

Originally Posted by thecapsaicinkid

After going Nexus, carrier phones, or manufacturer skinned phones are just horrible. Carriers have no business being anything other than the provider of my wireless service. I don't want your gaudy logos, your garbage apps and I certainly don't want my updates to come from you. Same goes for manufacturers, I want Android, from Google. I don't want Android plus whatever ui kludges you deem appropriate on top. The same way I don't want my laptop OS to come from whoever made the hardware or my isp's logo on the cover.

If LTE just reinforces this control then quite frankly, you can keep it. I kinda feel like people deserve this mess of carrier controlled devices. Google release the Nexus 4, a device completely free of any carrier influence, and what did people say? Waaah no LTE! A technology so utterly entwined with carrier control. I guess as long as carriers keep giving people phones they can't afford, it's all good.

I agree 100% with what you are saying. The more they control the less the technology can grow to fit the needs of the consumers. It's about how much money they can squeeze out of us. Look at Comcast or other cable companies if you want to see where it's going. We'll be nickel and dime'd for every feature or add on with another monthly fee.

[notposting]

WP7/8 -- no skins and carrier apps uninstallable And faaaast...

[Raduque]

I lol at you, OP.

Stock android sucks.

[Ravynmagi]

Originally Posted by RockinZ28

Or just root and put a rom of your choice on...

I used to do this, but every ROM I put on my phones made the battery life considerably worse and they always seem to have some sort of glitch with something. So I don't mess with them anymore.

[Ravynmagi]

Regarding the logos. I do like how my Nexus front glass is completely clean of such things. It looks better. It's a small thing, but I notice it.

The bloat and custom UIs I can probably live with. I root any phone I have, so I should be able to remove whatever I don't like. And I could use Nova launcher to give the phone a more normal feel.

I'm okay with HSPA+ right now. However I'm not sure how much longer I will be okay with it. I guess I could buy another Nexus phone this year with HSPA+, but I suspect it won't be much longer before this stops being acceptable. Which concerns me, because Google seems to have to give up control when they add LTE to a Nexus phone.

But my most favorite reason for getting a Nexus phone is of course having the latest version of Android and not having to wait 8 to 12 months for the manufactures and carriers to tinker around with it and push it out, if they ever do at all.

[DLeRium]

Originally Posted by RockinZ28

Or just root and put a rom of your choice on...

easier said than done. different phones depend on how well they can be developed for a ROM. My SGS2 for example, while it has a CM 10.1 out, is bugged and slow as hell. We'll never get full butter on it because of Samsung's Exynos proprietary crap.

I'm okay with HSPA+ right now. However I'm not sure how much longer I will be okay with it. I guess I could buy another Nexus phone this year with HSPA+, but I suspect it won't be much longer before this stops being acceptable. Which concerns me, because Google seems to have to give up control when they add LTE to a Nexus phone.

I hear this excuse time and time again. There's nothing that says adding LTE bands means the phone becomes a carrier phone. How about we look at the Nexus from a 2G/3G perspective. Assume somehow anyone can make a 2G world phone (quad band). But somehow adding 3G requires it to be a carrier phone? Does that make sense? NO! So how does it make sense for LTE? Google could've added LTE if they wanted to. Obviously LG wouldn't be too happy with the pricing. There were probably other minor reasons like not much of the world is using LTE yet, and that LTE gave the Galaxy Nexus a poor opinion on battery life.

But seriously, I play Ingress a lot, and when placing resonators, I can see my 3G icon go from 3G to H to H+. IT takes a second or so, and contributes to excessive battery use. This is why there's latency issues on 3G especially with the first connection. LTE doesn't seem to run into this. And remember, the faster you complete your task and return to idle, the more battery you end up saving. So you might not need 50mbps of LTE, but the latency difference and even in areas where 3G isn't the best, having LTE is a huge battery helper.

Originally Posted by s44

The problem is that stock 4.2 is worse than properly modded 4.1.

I hope KLP basically pretends stuff like the fake toggles (now even *less* intuitive in 4.2.2!) of JB2 never happened. C'mon Google, TW and CM have done that right forever now.

You know unfortunately the quick toggles in CM might go away. I'm not a huge fan of the new quick settings, even though CM turned them into 1 tap switches. I like to be able to see my notifications AND my toggles simultaneously. The CM team says the quick toggles are a hackjob from CM7 days and so while they're ported in here, they won't improve it (hence no NFC toggle on it yet) and it will die in CM11. Maybe someone can bring it back. The QS is all nifty looking but isn't practical. They're giant tiles on their own. I feel that people get obsessed with the latest and greatest, and forget that the original toggles were probably more practical. Oh well. Maybe someone can submit an updated quick toggles into CM11 when the time comes

[WelshBloke]

Originally Posted by DLeRium

easier said than done. different phones depend on how well they can be developed for a ROM. My SGS2 for example, while it has a CM 10.1 out, is bugged and slow as hell. We'll never get full butter on it because of Samsung's Exynos proprietary crap.

...

Thats your fault for using a buggy CM ROM when theres a 4.1.x ROM with butter already out there.

[DLeRium]

Originally Posted by WelshBloke

Thats your fault for using a buggy CM ROM when theres a 4.1.x ROM with butter already out there.

the stock ROM sure... but OP is talking about vanilla Android and how clean it is without bloat and ugly skins.

If you want AOSP on an SGS2, you're screwed. Basically if you want AOSP with any phone, it's YMMV. The safest bet is a Nexus.

[WelshBloke]

Originally Posted by DLeRium

the stock ROM sure... but OP is talking about vanilla Android and how clean it is without bloat and ugly skins.

If you want AOSP on an SGS2, you're screwed. Basically if you want AOSP with any phone, it's YMMV. The safest bet is a Nexus.

You can get 4.x.x SGS2 ROMS with no bloat and whatever skins you want.

[grkM3]

There are stock touch wiz ROMs for the Verizon gs3 with all bloat removed.I don't have any problems with the stock gs3 Verizon ROM and I'm using it with a launcher that makes the cell look like pure vanilla android.

I actually use the stock apps and have no issues with them and like others have said just delete them and move on.

I also don't like chrome browser as the old ICS browser runs a lot better

[blairharrington]

Does anybody know if MetroPCS offers fast and reliable LTE service? (If you live in a market where it's available.) From what I understand, the only way to get solid LTE service right now is to go the post-paid route in America.

Perhaps the biggest pro about using an iPhone, as I am now, is that there are no pre-installed carrier apps plus you do not rely on your carrier for updates to the OS.

I'm very interested in a future Android phablet. But it sucks that my future phone won't get OS updates in a timely manner. Or even at all.

I feel like Android is making no progress with respect to getting flagships updated in a timely fashion. This is a huge issue they need to address somehow.

Let me ask this. If you purchase, for example, the SIII international model and not the one provided from an American carrier with LTE, will you get updates quicker? Will said phone get Key Lime Pie sooner than the American model?

[s44]

Metro LTE is slower than T-Mo HSPA.

The US S3 will probably be one of the first phones to get working unofficial KLP. The international one will get official KLP sooner, but the Exynos driver stuff means you'll *have* to wait for Samsung's version.

[crab0]

Originally Posted by blairharrington

Does anybody know if MetroPCS offers fast and reliable LTE service? (If you live in a market where it's available.) From what I understand, the only way to get solid LTE service right now is to go the post-paid route in America.

Perhaps the biggest pro about using an iPhone, as I am now, is that there are no pre-installed carrier apps plus you do not rely on your carrier for updates to the OS.

I'm very interested in a future Android phablet. But it sucks that my future phone won't get OS updates in a timely manner. Or even at all.

I feel like Android is making no progress with respect to getting flagships updated in a timely fashion. This is a huge issue they need to address somehow.

Let me ask this. If you purchase, for example, the SIII international model and not the one provided from an American carrier with LTE, will you get updates quicker? Will said phone get Key Lime Pie sooner than the American model?

SG2 is good example of that getting better and also shows that the international Exynos model got JB before any other models (don't even know if other SG2's have JB offically yet, mine doesnt :/).

[lopri]

LTE, HSPA, 4G, 3G, I don't care about the labels. I care about the actual speed. I think this labeling business by carriers is beyond lame.

[boomhower]

Can't say I agree. LTE is worth some sacrifices. The carriers aren't the only ones to blame here, the OEM's are just as much to blame. Samsung is to the point it could get a perfectly clean phone released like Apple has, if they wanted to. Pretty much the same with updates, Samsung could force them out like Apple does. The infighting with updates is ridiculous.

[blairharrington]

I was so anxious to try an IPS phablet that I even purchased a knock-off Chinese model but then cancelled the purchase after coming to my senses.

I asked about updates regarding international versus American models because I'm considering an international Android device as long as it has HSPA+ in the States. At this moment I'm leaning towards the Optimus G Pro (5.5" model). It will be announced at MWC next week. The sensible move would be to wait until it potentially becomes available at AT&T. (Meaning, LTE.) However if it operates on AT&T's 4G network then I might just buy the unlocked international model. I'm curious if that model would get Key Lime faster than a hypothetical AT&T Optimus G Pro.