- Nov 20, 2005
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i think itll be hard to tear me away from a Nexus device after this. I've had two Nexus phones now and the development has always been superb. Unless the SGS4 shares the same hardware as the next Nexus I can't really justify going elsewhere.
Just using my SGS2 for the past 5 days (because my Nexus 4 died) is pretty painful. I have reboots and not only that this phone *feels* slow as hell. I could also blame Ingress for being the most inefficient app ever though.
Aikouka
Lifer
- Nov 27, 2001
- 30,383
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My worst mobile purchase was probably my ASUS Transformer TF300. Not that it's a downright terrible device, but because it ended up having very little use. I already owned an iPad, and I wanted to use it for the keyboard advantages. However, even though I tried the keyboard in Best Buy, it ended up being too small in normal usage. That was more or less a minor issue, but the biggest problem ended up being the poor software support on Android for document editing. I have access to just about every office suite for Android through Amazon's App Store, and I got annoyed trying to use every single one of them.
Now, I just use my ultrabook (with Microsoft Office) when I want to type stuff but don't feel like lugging a huge laptop around. I really need to get around to selling the TF300.
Now, I just use my ultrabook (with Microsoft Office) when I want to type stuff but don't feel like lugging a huge laptop around. I really need to get around to selling the TF300.
- Nov 20, 2005
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The lack of a SD slot (and now a removable battery) keeps me off the Nexuses. But that means I will be in trouble if the AT&T version of the SGS4 gets ruined next year. I feel so luckily they put out the i777 and not just the Skyrocket in the SGS2 generation.
Honestly ever since I put Jellybean (ROMs based on official) on my SGS2 the experience has been much better. Last weekend I did a big bunch of tweaks (1.45GHZ CPU, 400GHZ GPU, 218DPI) and it improved the performance/experience even more. I have been really happy with how this phone aged.
But then again I didn't go back from a Nexus 4 to my SGS2. I personally think Android CPUs could be three times as fast as our current top end and it still wouldn't plateau the experience. Also the screen difference is night and day.
LOL wat?
You know the Exynos had either Mali or PowerVR GPU's right?
The Galaxy S4 is definitely landing with an Exynos in some variant.
tdawg
Platinum Member
- May 18, 2001
- 2,215
- 6
- 81
Worst: Droid X. Horrible motoblur software and no real way to hack it to install Cyanogenmod or any other real ROM on it.
Best: Nexus One. It was what delivered me from my iphone 3g and introduced me to the world of stock android and custom roms. I've gone to a Galaxy Nexus which I really liked (and wished I could have taken it from Verizon to T-Mobile) and now a Note 2, which is pretty awesome. I just wish I could get Android 4.2 via Cyanogenmod 10.1 without losing multi window or s-pen functionality.
Best: Nexus One. It was what delivered me from my iphone 3g and introduced me to the world of stock android and custom roms. I've gone to a Galaxy Nexus which I really liked (and wished I could have taken it from Verizon to T-Mobile) and now a Note 2, which is pretty awesome. I just wish I could get Android 4.2 via Cyanogenmod 10.1 without losing multi window or s-pen functionality.
- Nov 20, 2005
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I could be wrong, but I thought that DLeRium was referring to the issues CM development has had with the Mali GPU on the SGS2. Project Butter only fully works on Samsung based ROMs.
With a SGX 5 series GPU there has been years of work on them in the Android community so I hope for better results with CM.
The screen is really miscalibrated on the Nexus 4 though. People say it's nice, but that's just due to the resolution bump. What would they say to the SGS3 or HTC One X screens? Those are EVEN better. In fact, I argue the washed out colors of the Nexus 4 is really distracting. So I personally thing it's nice but it's not THAT nice.
The first thing I say when I pull out my SGS2 or Nexus S is "WOW" at the screen. A big screen is nice, but to me the first thing I notice is the colors and pop. Sure 720p is nice and sharp, but when the text doesn't even pop out, that's pretty bad.
With that said, franco finally cracked the gamma issue and now you're able to get custom colors. My Nexus 4 blew up the day before he released his color tuning kernel so I never got to experience it, but I'd say it's a night and day difference between a calibrated and uncalibrated screen.
The other thing I can't stand is non-AOSP. Touchwiz is extremely distracting and maybe in the 2.x era it was ok. Now with Holo and a revamped UI, TouchWiz is transporting me back to 2.x, although it's a more cleaned up version. I used to find it OK to use stock rom sometimes on my SGS2, but forward to today and when I play with my gf's SGS3, it feels like a fischer price toy with TouchWiz.
the SGS2 is a very capable phone. It's just that the Exynos platform is extremely hard to develop for. The devs on XDA have ranted enough, but if I could get the kind of stability on CM or AOKP that the Nexus phones enjoy, then yeah, I would've stuck with my SGS2 for much longer.
I don't think it's a bad phone at all, but given my circumstances it probably wasn't the best buy at the time and just a splurge
so true. i bought a tf300 and i didnt have any other tablet, and i still never used it. big thing for me was the size... 10" is just too big for normal lazy use... or the weight made it bad i dont know... i just didnt like holding the thing while i used it. it wasnt the fastest tablet either...
MagickMan
Diamond Member
- Aug 11, 2008
- 7,460
- 3
- 76
Worst: Moto Photon 4G. After being screwed out of ICS, when they reneged on their promise, I literally took a ball bat to it and smashed it to pieces. Never buying another Moto product.
Best: iPhone 5 & Note 2. I travel with both; the iP5 is my actual phone and the Note 2 is like my mini-tablet/GPS/ebook reader. They're an awesome 1-2 punch.
Best: iPhone 5 & Note 2. I travel with both; the iP5 is my actual phone and the Note 2 is like my mini-tablet/GPS/ebook reader. They're an awesome 1-2 punch.
Yeah looking back the IP4 was truly ground breaking.
It made me an Apple hater into a current Apple user today.
FYI, Office Suite Pro 7 just dropped on the Play Store yesterday and it basically fixes all the issues with the original: cloud integration is no longer wonky, PDFs actually work, and the interface is way more Holo.
Those folks who got this in one of the big Google sales (I re-bought it to get off Amazon) got a nice free upgrade. Amazon sucks, though -- updates lag a lot, and who knows when this one will show up. The other Android document editor of choice -- Google Drive, for quick light work -- is obviously not going to show up on Amazon either.
Aikouka
Lifer
- Nov 27, 2001
- 30,383
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How is the spreadsheet editor? That was my biggest problem with the other office apps. It may sound silly, but I keep a record of all of my movies, TV shows and video games because I have a bad habit of buying them again if I see them on sale. Being able to look them up (the spreadsheet is on dropbox) makes my life much, much easier. Anyway, I went to use the TF300 for adding new entries into my spreadsheet, but I found it far, far more difficult than it should have been to just navigate with the keyboard. I can't remember if inserting rows was a chore either, but that would make the task more arduous as well.
I have been seeing a lot of good deals on the TF300 lately (as well as the TF700), so it might be more worthwhile to just keep it at this point. I probably won't get much for it compared to how much I paid ($399 (tablet) + $129 (dock)).
I actually don't mind a 10" form factor as I already owned an iPad 2 when I purchased the TF300. One thing that I found really strange about my dislike for the TF300 was that the keyboard dock, which was one of the main selling points, actually ruined the tablet experience for me. I kept the tablet in the dock, but that made me try and use it more like a laptop (i.e. always using the touch pad). Honestly, as much as ASUS tries, except for typing, it's far easier to use a tablet like a tablet! I think I really just need to force myself to remove it from the dock when I don't care to type on it, which will make me treat it like a tablet.
I also had issues with Android and the relatively poor battery life. I tried my best to keep apps from running (unnecessarily) in the background, but it never seemed to help as the TF300 would run out of juice far before the iPad 2 did, and that was with having two batteries (tablet + dock) at its disposal.
lokiju
Lifer
- May 29, 2003
- 18,526
- 5
- 0
One of those dumb phones before the iPhone came around where it had a side out keyboard that didn't line up like a regular keyboard.
Man I hated that thing.
Since my 1st iPhone, to the different Android devices and various tablets, I can honestly say I don't regret any of them, just some had more longevity than others did.
Might say I was very disappointed with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Plus.
Big factor to buying it was to become my home theater remote also and the IR blaster of course didn't work with my LCD TV and Samsungs response was "we're aware of the issue and it would be fixed in the next OS release but we're probably not going to make the new OS available to this device" which was a brand new $600 device at the time.
Was enough to make me return it and avoid Samsung devices since.
Man I hated that thing.
Since my 1st iPhone, to the different Android devices and various tablets, I can honestly say I don't regret any of them, just some had more longevity than others did.
Might say I was very disappointed with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Plus.
Big factor to buying it was to become my home theater remote also and the IR blaster of course didn't work with my LCD TV and Samsungs response was "we're aware of the issue and it would be fixed in the next OS release but we're probably not going to make the new OS available to this device" which was a brand new $600 device at the time.
Was enough to make me return it and avoid Samsung devices since.
*Much* better. You're right -- this was majorly wonky in previous office programs. My main use has been word processing.
Idle battery life isn't great, but if you actually *used* the thing you'd be amazed at how well it holds up to all-day use.
Btw, the "disable touch pad" button is the 4th one on the top row. Touch it once & never try it again. Touchscreen is the way to go.
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- Nov 20, 2005
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Aikouka
Lifer
- Nov 27, 2001
- 30,383
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I could give it a shot and see how well it does.
It just comes down to what's faster to use, and ever since the wake-on-open stopped working on the TF300, the iPad is the superior choice. I may have to type things using the screen, but the fact that it simply wakes up when I open the cover is just too handy to ignore.
Btw, the "disable touch pad" button is the 4th one on the top row. Touch it once & never try it again. Touchscreen is the way to go.
I have disabled it in the past when I found myself erroneously hitting it. I guess it's a mental thing with the TF300. For all intents and purposes, the tablet is presented as a laptop while docked, and I just try and use it like one. That's kind of why I think as much as I really wanted the dock, the dock may have actually ruined the
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