Looking for advice on android

[RampantAndroid]

Hi all,

Since I upgraded my iphone 4 to iOS6 like a complete moron, I'm looking to finally dump my phone and move to something else. I'm on AT&T, but am thinking of going to verizon as the company I'm with gets an employee advantage of unlimited data (I'm grandfathered into AT&T's unlimited data, though.)

First off, the carrier: what are the major downsides to Verizon beyond the limitation of there being no data and voice at the same time? What will verizon do to me when I root my phone and make a wifi hotspot?

As for the phone - I'm thinking of getting the Galaxy S3 in 32GB, and then possibly adding more space if I find a good media player in the marketplace and put all my music on the phone (if I dump my Zune pass, that is.) What negatives are there to the S3? All reviews are glowing, and can only point to Samsung's own software as the downsides. The reviews also all used the S3 with ICS and not Jellybean. How does Jellybean change the phone? Is putting a custom ROM that reverts the phone to the basic android OS with no samsung bloatware a good idea?

Oh, also...I'm 18 months into my AT&T contract - what will my ETF be? Do you guys think I can convice Verizon into helping cover some of that damage by throwing in some accessories or something?

 

[cmdrdredd]

Data and voice at the same time works...I use it currently with my Galaxy S 3 running Jellybean roms.

The only downside for me is slower 3G but since I am pretty much always locked to 4G it's not an issue.

Not sure about your ETF I think it's prorated though so you won't pay the entire $200 fee. Verizon probably won't give you free stuff but what they did for me when I dropped my iPhone on ATT to go with them on android was give me a 2nd phone for free to activate a second line (I didn't need to pay for the actual device).

The S3 is great...the negative, if you wanna call it one is the the screen is not a Super AMOLED. IMO the Nexus and HTX One X have much nicer screens. Jellybean makes things a little smoother overall. It's not a huge upgrade but it does help make things feel a little more snappy. As far as running AOSP or AOKP roms (no bloat) there is not a verizon leak for the GS3 yet so we have to run hybrid leaks (take a T-Mobile or AT&T base and adapt it to run on the verizon device with some parts of the Sprint leak thrown in to fix problems such as simultaneous data and voice support). So to be perfectly honest there is not really a way currently to run a version of Jellybean on a Verizon Galaxy S3 without at least a little bloat since everything is based off a leak outside the carrier. That said there are some roms without touchwiz like LiquidSmooth. I have tried these and they are not as stable for me as JellyWiz (that includes Touchwiz). Stability comes first for me and when Verizon has a leak I'm sure there will be more choices. After a final release of the OS I am positive official AOKP and AOSP roms will appear.

 

[Nothinman]

Hi all,

Since I upgraded my iphone 4 to iOS6 like a complete moron, I'm looking to finally dump my phone and move to something else. I'm on AT&T, but am thinking of going to verizon as the company I'm with gets an employee advantage of unlimited data (I'm grandfathered into AT&T's unlimited data, though.)

First off, the carrier: what are the major downsides to Verizon beyond the limitation of there being no data and voice at the same time? What will verizon do to me when I root my phone and make a wifi hotspot?

As for the phone - I'm thinking of getting the Galaxy S3 in 32GB, and then possibly adding more space if I find a good media player in the marketplace and put all my music on the phone (if I dump my Zune pass, that is.) What negatives are there to the S3? All reviews are glowing, and can only point to Samsung's own software as the downsides. The reviews also all used the S3 with ICS and not Jellybean. How does Jellybean change the phone? Is putting a custom ROM that reverts the phone to the basic android OS with no samsung bloatware a good idea?

Oh, also...I'm 18 months into my AT&T contract - what will my ETF be? Do you guys think I can convice Verizon into helping cover some of that damage by throwing in some accessories or something?

Voice and data works on LTE because they're separate radios. You only have to worry about that if you don't have LTE coverage or disable it to save battery.

I don't know if Verizon will do anything to you besides possibly add the hotspot feature to your plan if they catch you doing that extensively. I've used both wired and wireless tethering occasionally and haven't received anything about it. If you don't mind being wired there's https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.tether which supposedly can't be detected by the carrier but I can't really vouch for that as I don't know all of the technical details.

 

[cmdrdredd]

If you root you don't need to worry about tethering at all as it can be done entirely through the device undetected.

 

[Nothinman]

If you root you don't need to worry about tethering at all as it can be done entirely through the device undetected.

Are you sure? I've seen people say they've had their carrier send them a few warnings and then just add the tethering option to their plans. Unless you wrap everything in an encrypted tunnel it wouldn't be very difficult to detect tethering with a little bit of DPI.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Are you sure? I've seen people say they've had their carrier send them a few warnings and then just add the tethering option to their plans. Unless you wrap everything in an encrypted tunnel it wouldn't be very difficult to detect tethering with a little bit of DPI.

Yep...I use it quite often for my Tablet. However you need a 3rd party tool. Can't just use the built in one.

I'm still on verizon's unlimited with my GS3 and never use that much data. I think max for any one month has been 5GB.

 

[s44]

Verizon isn't cracking down on LTE tethering (yet?). 3g maybe. AT&T cracks down on everything. Hell, they throttle the hell out of "unlimited" plan users.

Only downside to Verizon is price and lack of device compatibility. Their network is by far the best.

 

[pm]

I would request that we stop discussing how to enable tethering without getting caught by the carriers. While I agree with anyone who thinks it's stupid to have to pay for tethering when you are already paying for data, you agree to those charges when you sign up for the service. The Anandtech forums do not condone fraud and trying to circumvent the tethering detection in order to avoid paying the fee for the service is essentially fraud.

Kindly refrain from future discussion of tethering detection or circumvention.

As with all things involving moderation, if you disagree or have comments on what I have written please send a PM to one or both of us or post to the moderation resources forum, and not in this thread.

Thanks
Moderators PM & TheStu

 

[Infrnl]

The iPhone on Verizon is probably the only phone that does not allow voice/data simultaneously. I know that the razr works just fine. Where I live Verizon has better coverage in most areas and has lte where AT&T does not have lte yet

ETF for AT&T is $325 -$10 for ea month used. So you should only have to pay $145 if my math is right

 

[cmdrdredd]

I always find it difficult to recommend a carrier because here verizon has good network coverage and speed while elsewhere att might be a little better. Always research that prior to deciding and then choose your device based on the carrier's options.

I still like the ability to customize android into sometjing more than page after page of icons.

 

[Nothinman]

I always find it difficult to recommend a carrier because here verizon has good network coverage and speed while elsewhere att might be a little better. Always research that prior to deciding and then choose your device based on the carrier's options.

I still like the ability to customize android into sometjing more than page after page of icons.

Same here. As much as I dislike Verizon as a company and their choice of CDMA over GSM, their coverage here in PA is phenomenal and I've never really had any issues with my account.

 

[cl-scott]

So as others have said, the S3 and it's near identical cousin the Galaxy Nexus can both do voice and data at the same time. However, there is the minor caveat to that, in that there's a setting in the bowels of Android which can prevent this from working. I think most custom ROMs have that setting defaulted to allow it (I know AOKP does), but there's always a chance the vendor's ROM won't. I do not believe the stock Gnex ROM does for example, though I didn't use it for very long, so may be mistaken.

And briefly on the tethering... A desktop web browser is going to send a very different set of requests than a mobile device, so it's pretty trivial to tell the difference. Tethering a tablet is probably going to slip under the radar because they are effectively cell phones with giant screens.

I know people complain about CDMA, but it does seem to be better at penetrating buildings and giving coverage in built up areas. Plus, quite frankly, Verizon is the only company that has invested the resources into building what could truly be considered a nationwide network. However, if you don't travel much, and the coverage is not an issue in your area, might be worth asking the question of whether or not it's worth changing carriers.

Finally, IMO, custom ROMs are the only way to go with Android. Being able to reverse the bizarre decision by Google to link ringer and notification volumes is worth it all on its own if you ask me. I like being able to mute my phone's ringer at work, but still have notifications just loud enough for me to hear without being disruptive. I also like being able to run custom kernels, like the Lean Kernel by imoseyon. Strips out all the junk that I'm never going to use, and even has the option of letting me underclock the CPU to as low as 180MHz when it's not really doing anything of consequence, shut off one of the CPU cores when the screen is off, and other nice little battery saving tweaks.



Warning infraction for ignoring the large boldfaced warning to not talk about circumventing carriers' tethering detection system. I again request no more discussions of what devices might not get caught.

Moderator PM

 

[lothar]

Hi all,

Since I upgraded my iphone 4 to iOS6 like a complete moron, I'm looking to finally dump my phone and move to something else. I'm on AT&T, but am thinking of going to verizon as the company I'm with gets an employee advantage of unlimited data (I'm grandfathered into AT&T's unlimited data, though.)

First off, the carrier: what are the major downsides to Verizon beyond the limitation of there being no data and voice at the same time? What will verizon do to me when I root my phone and make a wifi hotspot?

As for the phone - I'm thinking of getting the Galaxy S3 in 32GB, and then possibly adding more space if I find a good media player in the marketplace and put all my music on the phone (if I dump my Zune pass, that is.) What negatives are there to the S3? All reviews are glowing, and can only point to Samsung's own software as the downsides. The reviews also all used the S3 with ICS and not Jellybean. How does Jellybean change the phone? Is putting a custom ROM that reverts the phone to the basic android OS with no samsung bloatware a good idea?

Oh, also...I'm 18 months into my AT&T contract - what will my ETF be? Do you guys think I can convice Verizon into helping cover some of that damage by throwing in some accessories or something?

I would request that we stop discussing how to enable tethering without getting caught by the carriers. While I agree with anyone who thinks it's stupid to have to pay for tethering when you are already paying for data, you agree to those charges when you sign up for the service. The Anandtech forums do not condone fraud and trying to circumvent the tethering detection in order to avoid paying the fee for the service is essentially fraud.

Kindly refrain from future discussion of tethering detection or circumvention.

As with all things involving moderation, if you disagree or have comments on what I have written please send a PM to one or both of us or post to the moderation resources forum, and not in this thread.

Thanks
Moderators PM & TheStu

The OP is thinking about going to Verizon which now only has the "share data" plan for all new contracts.
Isn't tethering on Verizon now freely allowed on the new "shared data" plans and doesn't require paying for a hotspot?
My understanding of these new "shared" data plans is that you can now tether legally without paying for a hotspot?
If he was on a grandfathered Verizon plan however...He cannot(or should not rather) tether legally.

I posted here rather than sending you a PM because other people here on Verizon know more about the shared data plans than I do since I don't use them.
What about the precedent of the FCC fining Verizon for blocking tethering apps on the Play Store? Doesn't that lawsuit that Verizon lost essentially make it "legal" now?

Also I'm not sure what the OP means by "employee advantage" of unlimited data. Verizon no longer offers unlimited data, so I'm not completely sure what exactly he means by that.

As to "What will verizon do to me when I root my phone and make a wifi hotspot?", my theory is that if you're on the new "shared data" plan absolutely nothing?

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Data and voice at the same time works...I use it currently with my Galaxy S 3 running Jellybean roms.

The only downside for me is slower 3G but since I am pretty much always locked to 4G it's not an issue.

Not sure about your ETF I think it's prorated though so you won't pay the entire $200 fee. Verizon probably won't give you free stuff but what they did for me when I dropped my iPhone on ATT to go with them on android was give me a 2nd phone for free to activate a second line (I didn't need to pay for the actual device).

The S3 is great...the negative, if you wanna call it one is the the screen is not a Super AMOLED. IMO the Nexus and HTX One X have much nicer screens. Jellybean makes things a little smoother overall. It's not a huge upgrade but it does help make things feel a little more snappy. As far as running AOSP or AOKP roms (no bloat) there is not a verizon leak for the GS3 yet so we have to run hybrid leaks (take a T-Mobile or AT&T base and adapt it to run on the verizon device with some parts of the Sprint leak thrown in to fix problems such as simultaneous data and voice support). So to be perfectly honest there is not really a way currently to run a version of Jellybean on a Verizon Galaxy S3 without at least a little bloat since everything is based off a leak outside the carrier. That said there are some roms without touchwiz like LiquidSmooth. I have tried these and they are not as stable for me as JellyWiz (that includes Touchwiz). Stability comes first for me and when Verizon has a leak I'm sure there will be more choices. After a final release of the OS I am positive official AOKP and AOSP roms will appear.

The SGS3 is Super AMOLED and is actually a newer revision that is substantially improved compared to the one found in the Nexus. The Anandtech review made it clear the SGS3 had the better screen of the two.

 

[lothar]

Data and voice at the same time works...I use it currently with my Galaxy S 3 running Jellybean roms.

The only downside for me is slower 3G but since I am pretty much always locked to 4G it's not an issue.

Not sure about your ETF I think it's prorated though so you won't pay the entire $200 fee. Verizon probably won't give you free stuff but what they did for me when I dropped my iPhone on ATT to go with them on android was give me a 2nd phone for free to activate a second line (I didn't need to pay for the actual device).

The S3 is great...the negative, if you wanna call it one is the the screen is not a Super AMOLED. IMO the Nexus and HTX One X have much nicer screens. Jellybean makes things a little smoother overall. It's not a huge upgrade but it does help make things feel a little more snappy. As far as running AOSP or AOKP roms (no bloat) there is not a verizon leak for the GS3 yet so we have to run hybrid leaks (take a T-Mobile or AT&T base and adapt it to run on the verizon device with some parts of the Sprint leak thrown in to fix problems such as simultaneous data and voice support). So to be perfectly honest there is not really a way currently to run a version of Jellybean on a Verizon Galaxy S3 without at least a little bloat since everything is based off a leak outside the carrier. That said there are some roms without touchwiz like LiquidSmooth. I have tried these and they are not as stable for me as JellyWiz (that includes Touchwiz). Stability comes first for me and when Verizon has a leak I'm sure there will be more choices. After a final release of the OS I am positive official AOKP and AOSP roms will appear.

Almost every review I read mentioned the GS3 has a better screen than the Galaxy Nexus.
Not sure what you're referring to.

 

[ImDonly1]

For att smartphones the ETF is
"$325 minus $10 for each full month of completed Service Commitment."

Still going to cost quite a bit of money.

 

[s44]

Isn't tethering on Verizon now freely allowed on the new "shared data" plans and doesn't require paying for a hotspot?

Correct. Apparently the FCC regs for the 700mhz spectrum VZ is using for LTE require allowing free tether... at least on non-unlimited plans. Not sure if this applies to the corporate unlimited OP is going to get.

 

[TheStu]

For att smartphones the ETF is
"$325 minus $10 for each full month of completed Service Commitment."

Still going to cost quite a bit of money.

Yea, best case scenario, you are still looking at a $95 ETF to break it in month 23 of your contract. And at that point, just pay the last month, unless it is more than $95 obviously.

 

[BenSkywalker]

All reviews are glowing, and can only point to Samsung's own software as the downsides.

If you get a GS3, install a launcher as you are walking out of the store, that problem is solved(I *detest* that reviewers waste so much time on what amounts to a single app on Android phones).

Battery life hasn't been great in my experience. The phone seems to do well in run down tests, but in actual day to day use it is considerably worse then many of the phones it runs with in the benches. It isn't HTC bad, but it isn't close to even with Moto/Apple phones IME.

Is putting a custom ROM that reverts the phone to the basic android OS with no samsung bloatware a good idea?

Bloatware on high end phones is rather insanely overstated. If you have a Windows machine, do you try to uninstall WordPad? Not saying that in a mocking tone, just that is akin to how you can think of the bloat on modern high power phones. Yes, it will free up a bit of memory, no, it won't make much, if any, difference in performance. My current daily driver is running CM10(JB) build, there are benefits to doing so but the 'bloat' factor isn't a remotely good reason to go through the trouble IMO.

I'm thinking of getting the Galaxy S3 in 32GB, and then possibly adding more space if I find a good media player in the marketplace and put all my music on the phone (if I dump my Zune pass, that is.)

XBox Music Pass(ZunePass renamed) is scheduled to hit Android at some point(I would imagine it shouldn't be more then ~quarter out). I would imagine they will have their own app to play music using the service.

What level of music quality are you looking for? In particular, what do you use for IEM/cans for your phone? The GS3 isn't all that great in terms of DAC quality, but if you are using anything in the sub $100 range only your imagination is likely to notice a difference.

 

[dagamer34]

If you get a GS3, install a launcher as you are walking out of the store, that problem is solved(I *detest* that reviewers waste so much time on what amounts to a single app on Android phones).

Battery life hasn't been great in my experience. The phone seems to do well in run down tests, but in actual day to day use it is considerably worse then many of the phones it runs with in the benches. It isn't HTC bad, but it isn't close to even with Moto/Apple phones IME.



Bloatware on high end phones is rather insanely overstated. If you have a Windows machine, do you try to uninstall WordPad? Not saying that in a mocking tone, just that is akin to how you can think of the bloat on modern high power phones. Yes, it will free up a bit of memory, no, it won't make much, if any, difference in performance. My current daily driver is running CM10(JB) build, there are benefits to doing so but the 'bloat' factor isn't a remotely good reason to go through the trouble IMO.



XBox Music Pass(ZunePass renamed) is scheduled to hit Android at some point(I would imagine it shouldn't be more then ~quarter out). I would imagine they will have their own app to play music using the service.

What level of music quality are you looking for? In particular, what do you use for IEM/cans for your phone? The GS3 isn't all that great in terms of DAC quality, but if you are using anything in the sub $100 range only your imagination is likely to notice a difference.

The difference with Windows is you can install a new, clean copy of the OS that has had heavy QA testing. Custom ROMs are like the lottery, rarely are you going to find a winner.

I also want to remind the OP to actually find a friend with Verizon and take them to their home and run speedtests. In my apartment, I get 1 bar of Verizon LTE but 5 bars of AT&T, which makes switching impossible.

 

[Nothinman]

The difference with Windows is you can install a new, clean copy of the OS that has had heavy QA testing. Custom ROMs are like the lottery, rarely are you going to find a winner.

I also want to remind the OP to actually find a friend with Verizon and take them to their home and run speedtests. In my apartment, I get 1 bar of Verizon LTE but 5 bars of AT&T, which makes switching impossible.

As long as you stick to custom ROMs with active communities they're more stable with more features than stock, IME.

 

[bearxor]

Correct. Apparently the FCC regs for the 700mhz spectrum VZ is using for LTE require allowing free tether... at least on non-unlimited plans. Not sure if this applies to the corporate unlimited OP is going to get.

The open access restrictions claim that Verizon can't restrict the use of devices or applications that use the c block spectrum. This means that Verizon can charge you whatever they want for tethering, but they can't prevent you from using a downloaded tethering app that uses your existing data plan.

Note that this only applies to devices currently using the c block 700mhz spectrum. This does not apply to Verizon's 1900 and 800mhz holdings. Or their new AWS holdings.

 

[cmdrdredd]

As long as you stick to custom ROMs with active communities they're more stable with more features than stock, IME.

Pretty much. Also battery life can be extended with a few tricks in newer roms. Most issues are fixed quickly (within 1 or two days) since there are so many people assisting with finding bugs and figuring out what might fix it and when the dev makes a new build they can toss the fix into the zip. With the carrier's OS updates/firmware some bugs and performance issues will never be fixed.

The difference with Windows is you can install a new, clean copy of the OS that has had heavy QA testing. Custom ROMs are like the lottery, rarely are you going to find a winner.

I also want to remind the OP to actually find a friend with Verizon and take them to their home and run speedtests. In my apartment, I get 1 bar of Verizon LTE but 5 bars of AT&T, which makes switching impossible.

No Wifi at home? I mean... a $20 router eliminates the necessity for the carrier.

 

[pm]

I'm fine with a discussion of whether or not tethering is a legitimate charge, just not how to avoid the carrier's detection methods in order to avoid the charge.

And lothar, I honestly have no idea what the FCC and Verizon are working out, but my view is that if it has a fee, then discussions about how not to get caught so that you don't have to pay the fee cross the ethical line into fraud. Again, if you want to convince me otherwise, please send me a PM.

 

[RampantAndroid]

What level of music quality are you looking for? In particular, what do you use for IEM/cans for your phone? The GS3 isn't all that great in terms of DAC quality, but if you are using anything in the sub $100 range only your imagination is likely to notice a difference.

I've got some SE530s and UM3X IEMs I use for travel/work - so yes, I could hear the hard drive spinning up in my old Zune80. Even my Zune HD makes a little noise. KIN was pretty good.

What is a better phone for DAC quality? How do these compare to the iphone which has for me "been enough"?

Thanks!