Help me hate android less

[Zaap]

I dunno, a direct upload with no transcoding?

Ah, got it. I would have just said this for clarity. (Why not a direct upload, no transcoding).

 

[slackerinabox]

1. Disabling the apps is still probably the best method. The Note 5 and S7 don't have the hitches of earlier phones in my personal experience. I've used an S3, Note 2, S5, S6, Note 5 and S7 Edge for comparison.

2. I just donwloaded the dark material theme and use the Samsung launcher. Seems pretty minimal, but I do use fore than 4 apps.

3. Not sure what caused the issues with battery life on the S6. Some days where good, some bad and it was hard to figure out what was killing it. My Note 5 goes a long time with heavy use and the S7 Edge is even better. Shouldn't have to mess with any battery managers or app killers.

4. Photo sync is seamless now. The options are 1) lets Google downscale your photos and store them for free or 2) sync them at the native resolution and it counts against your quota. 4k also will get synce at the native resolution, but the app will only do that when on Wifi. Smaller videos can be synced over the network.

5. My LG Watch R doesn't have issues with missing notifications. Can't speak for all the models.

6. The Android Auto app is in the store. Just download it, hook up your phone to the car stereo's USB port and the app should connect/mirror.

Thanks! Sounds likes things have changed for the better. I'm most worry about the move from carplay to android auto, hope voice recognitition and the maps are decent.. bonus points if waze works! carplay can't do that.

 

[openwheel]

Get an iPhone and get on with your life. No one cares if you ever use Android again.

Drops mic.

 

[jhansman]

Im certainly not an audiophile that can hear all these magical differences (in my car certainly) but what exactly would be better than 320kbs mp3?

Oh, that's an easy one: FLAC

Problem is, your head unit may not support it for BT streaming. When I was picking out my player, I made sure it did support WAV and FLAC. The audio difference (with a decent amp and speakers) between any compressed format and FLAC is obvious, even to my 67 yr. old tennitus ringing ears.

As for not hating Android, I don't think we can help with that. I could never use an iPhone, but that's just me. From the get-go Android has been my mobile OS. And yeah, Nexus is how avoid the manuf./provider bloat, but Google will still load up your device with all the Gapps. Not a problem for me; my 2013 Nexus 7 is probably the best device I've yet owned.

Lastly, my S5 is going strong, and I see no reason to upgrade. Being two generations back is fine (upgradeable storage and replaceable battery-can't go wrong there) so long as the phone does what I need without turning into a turtle. Still on 5.1.1 on T-Mobile and no complaints.

 

[dawheat]

I mentioned it before but the s6 does not do well in areas with marginal service. My apartment's (and the subway) causes constant radio activity (which I think is trying to find towers) and it just crushes battery life. My iphone didn't have that problem, or had better power management.

My work phone is a S6 and battery life is OK but I have good coverage most of the time. I wonder if the edge service drain is related to all S6's using Samsung's home grown modems instead of QC. You should ask on XDA if other US S7 owners are seeing improvement here since they all use QC modems.

 

[Zaap]

bonus points if waze works! carplay can't do that.

It doesn't. That would be nice though.

 

[Zaap]

Oh, that's an easy one: FLAC

Just to clarify- the way it was worded I thought he was saying specifically that 320kbs was bad ***FOR MP3***- not that there aren't of course better formats than MP3.

It was mentioning the kbs as though that were the problem that confused me with what he was saying.

 

[slackerinabox]

It doesn't. That would be nice though.

Shit, that's what annoys me about google - they own waze and can't make it work with their platform! It's ok, google maps is better than apple maps so it's no big loss, just annoying.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

The audio difference (with a decent amp and speakers) between any compressed format and FLAC is obvious, even to my 67 yr. old tennitus ringing ears.

Bull. Study after study after study has shown this to not be the case. No one is able to tell the formats apart.

 

[nerp]

Bull. Study after study after study has shown this to not be the case. No one is able to tell the formats apart.

Some people can detect the differences.

"No one is able to tell the formats apart" sounds a lot like "nobody can perceive framerates above 30fps."

 

[WelshBloke]

Bull. Study after study after study has shown this to not be the case. No one is able to tell the formats apart.

I can with certain music under certain circumstances but not often and not consistently.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Some people can detect the differences.

"No one is able to tell the formats apart" sounds a lot like "nobody can perceive framerates above 30fps."

The claim that people can tell the difference between FLAC and mp3 is more like the claim that homeopathy cured cancer. Absolute bunk that no scientific study supports at all.

 

[WelshBloke]

The claim that people can tell the difference between FLAC and mp3 is more like the claim that homeopathy cured cancer. Absolute bunk that no scientific study supports at all.

Given that low bitrate MP3s sound terrible I'm thinking that you might want to rephrase that.

 

[sweenish]

Some people can detect the differences.

"No one is able to tell the formats apart" sounds a lot like "nobody can perceive framerates above 30fps."

They made the mistake of making their argument universal.

However, they are correct that most (emphasis on most, it's a very high percentage) people can't distinguish v0, let alone 320 kbps, from lossless.

Closest I got was noticing how much better The Gorillaz sounded moving from 128 to 256 to v0. Granted, I didn't notice as big a difference from 256 to v0, but I did notice a difference. I don't know if I would notice anything if I moved to lossless, but I know I can at least tell a difference going from low bitrate to high bitrate.

A friend with a pretty decent setup tried some A|B testing with me, and I couldn't tell between FLAC and high bitrate mp3. It was only with a couple tracks, and I don't know if they were the best examples. A lot of modern pop doesn't do enough acoustically where FLAC would really be preserving anything noticeable.

 

[Anubis]

there is an option in google auto cloud backup to sync full rez and such. so it does not compress anything

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Given that low bitrate MP3s sound terrible I'm thinking that you might want to rephrase that.

There is literally nothing stopping me from creating low bitrate FLAC.

FLAC is a container, it makes absolutely no distinction of how good the sound quality is. I could easily make a FLAC song sound worse than an MP3.

Also, when making these arguments, of freaking course we're assuming a standard 320kbps mp3. Why even mention anything else. When you make comparisons between any piece of tech, do you normally assume one piece of tech has broken components?

 

[desura]

There is literally nothing stopping me from creating low bitrate FLAC.

FLAC is a container, it makes absolutely no distinction of how good the sound quality is. I could easily make a FLAC song sound worse than an MP3.

Also, when making these arguments, of freaking course we're assuming a standard 320kbps mp3. Why even mention anything else. When you make comparisons between any piece of tech, do you normally assume one piece of tech has broken components?

Nothing at all. It is a lossless audio codec, and not a simple container likely mkv.

 

[ultimatebob]

I fear that the OP bought the wrong Android phone if he's not a fan of bloatware. He probably should have got a Nexus device instead.

Cyanogenmod might help, but you'll likely be swapping bloatware for missing functionality at that point.

 

[slackerinabox]

I fear that the OP bought the wrong Android phone if he's not a fan of bloatware. He probably should have got a Nexus device instead.

Cyanogenmod might help, but you'll likely be swapping bloatware for missing functionality at that point.

Well, after owning both the s6 (hated) and the iphone 6s, I realized that no phone is perfect. I mean, people call iOs buttersmooth but I've had app crashes and reboots, and honestly my alcatel cheap tablet has been chugging around just fine. So I don't expect it to be PERFECT, my s6 edge was just less than fine.

My #1 priority would be photo quality, and I don't believe any phone does better yet. I was underwhelmed jumping from the s6 to the 6s, felt like a downgrade in some areas (pure sharpness). Apple won by a mile when it came to video though, hope the s7 rectifies that.

 

[sweenish]

There is literally nothing stopping me from creating low bitrate FLAC.

FLAC is a container, it makes absolutely no distinction of how good the sound quality is. I could easily make a FLAC song sound worse than an MP3.

Also, when making these arguments, of freaking course we're assuming a standard 320kbps mp3. Why even mention anything else. When you make comparisons between any piece of tech, do you normally assume one piece of tech has broken components?

It does have to be said. I would like to present that other thread where the OP compared <$100 Chinese Android tablets to an iPad 4.

People are absolutely stupid, even on these boards, so your statements should be qualified.

I got your gist, but since people like to nitpick and not actually argue (as in actually debate) facts, you get stuff like this.

However, you're wrong on FLAC. It literally means Free Lossless Audio Codec. You can change the compression level, this is true, but it's always going to be lossless. Compression level changes are for how much strain you want to put on the player, I imagine. Weighing storage efficiency against battery life in a capable portable player, for example.

 

[biostud]

Get a Windows Phone

 

[slackerinabox]

Get a Windows Phone

I had one and I loved it. The app situation was awful though, couldn't even get banking or instagram from what I remember.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Im certainly not an audiophile that can hear all these magical differences (in my car certainly) but what exactly would be better than 320kbs mp3?

It's not 320kbs .MP3 that's lousy, in fact, it is quite good as a standard. The problem is that even with the good codec, either due to a poor encoder, or equally terribad source, music I download from Google Play sounds like a bad Youtube rip that's been encoded several times over down to 64kbs.

Flac music encoded to 128kbs .MP3 via LAME sounds quite good on my work earphones.

 

[jhansman]

Well, the FLAC vs. MP3 (or any compressed format) debate has been going on and on, but let's remember the ultimate arbiter is your ear., and you don't need to be an audiophile. If you can't hear the difference, then you can't; that doesn't mean there isn't one. It's a bit like saying there is no appreciable difference between RAW capture and JPEG. Your vision may not allow you to see the difference, but trust me, it's there when you output RAW to TIFF. At any rate, with so many choices in phones now, no one phone is going to make everyone happy. All providers have a return period, so methinks the thing to do is try it hard for a week or so, and return it if it fails your needs or expectations.

 

[slackerinabox]

I got my phone yesterday and love, love, love it. The ergonomics are so much better than my iphone plus, and everything else is pretty much equal or better.

I'll answer some of my own questions and repeat others I have:


1. Samsung bloat.

Not as bad as expected. I disabled some carrier bloat but, really, not bad and smooth save for the rare hiccup

2. Launchers.

I liked aviate's approach to management, still looking for a good launcher because touchwiz still feels a little playschool - it's not unbearable with a theme though. I'll try nova today

3. Battery life

Jury's still out

4. Photo sync

Like google's approach as much as iCloud. Though is there a desktop app on the mac side, to replace apple photos?

5. Smart watch:

Thank you so much for those who suggested giving pebble a try on android before buying something new: it works *much* better on android than ios. No complaints, I get the notifications I need with little hassle

6. My head unit has android auto but unfortunately no built in gps (carplay previously worked perfectly). Is android auto now bullet proof? I couldn't for the life of me get the prior standard working on my s6.

Works just fine on a Kenwood head unit after installing the Android Auto app. It's limited, but about as limited as carplay



New question: I left the phone on my qi charger and in the morning I was still at 9%, even though it claims to have been charging. I'm guessing it's the charger itself, but is there something else I should look into? I did notice that qi charging is easier that before, meaning you don't have to place it just right.

Overall, very impressive phone that (if the battery life holds up) corrects many of the ills of the s6 edge.