Smartphones
- Thread starter Denamian
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I currently have a Samsung galaxy 2 and I am about to upgrade. I was looking at the note 3 but I hear the S5 is about to come out. I mostly just text, surf, and play games on it so the CPU/Ram and screen size is most important to me. I am currently on Virgin but I am looking at T-Mobile. Any suggestions is appreciated
Tarrant
<Prior Amod>
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First of all, you don't travel further north than Forest Lake.....ever, do you? If you do, look elsewhere for a provider than T-Mobile.
Joeboo
Molten Core Raider
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I've had the Samsung S2, S3, S4, and now Note 3. I goddamn love the Note 3, but it's basically just an S4 with a larger screen. The big difference(besides screen) on all of them is the camera quality. The camera in the S4/Note 3 is much, much better than the S2 and S3. My wife still has an S3 and when we each take pictures of our kid or something, the pictures from my Note 3 are always noticeably better quality, especially in low light.
I think the big thing with the Note 3 vs S5(other than screen size) will once again be the camera, and also the S5 waterproofing. With a new kid in our home, that waterproof feature is looking REALLY nice on the S5. That's probably going to be my wifes next phone, the Note is too big for her smaller hands anyways, and it should be extra durable with the waterproofing. Its basically safe to drop in sinks, toilets, puddles, rain should be fine, spill a drink on it, etc. You're still probably boned if you drop it in deep water like a pool or lake though.
I think the big thing with the Note 3 vs S5(other than screen size) will once again be the camera, and also the S5 waterproofing. With a new kid in our home, that waterproof feature is looking REALLY nice on the S5. That's probably going to be my wifes next phone, the Note is too big for her smaller hands anyways, and it should be extra durable with the waterproofing. Its basically safe to drop in sinks, toilets, puddles, rain should be fine, spill a drink on it, etc. You're still probably boned if you drop it in deep water like a pool or lake though.
Tarrant
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Joeboo
Molten Core Raider
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S4 vs Note 3 = same version of Android, same camera, same screen resolution(the Note ending up being less PPI since it's larger), etc. The Note has a marginally more powerful processor, but I honestly couldn't tell much performance difference in everyday use having used both for several months. Note has a much larger battery, but some of that is offset by the larger screens larger power draw. Effective use time isn't drastically different.
And I never use the stylus for anything, so that's a non-factor for me.
I loved the S4, I'd still have it if I hadn't broken it, but I now like My Note even better, I prefer the even larger screen even if the rest of the phone & features feel basically the same.
And I never use the stylus for anything, so that's a non-factor for me.
I loved the S4, I'd still have it if I hadn't broken it, but I now like My Note even better, I prefer the even larger screen even if the rest of the phone & features feel basically the same.
Tarrant
<Prior Amod>
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You would have been better off saying that you couldn't tell the difference then, not saying they were basically the same.
Right off the bat, the battery life was much better, it wasn't even close with standby time being literally days longer, talk time was in the neighborhood of 6 hours longer, some tests had it in the double digits. That's about as drastic as you can get when it comes to battery life in a cell phone. It's silly to say there is no difference between the two.
Never mind that benchmarks in processing are almost double of the S4, saying these two phones are the same but one is bigger is silly.
Also, sPen may seem gimmicky to some but to those that use it and learn to use it, you'll get so much more functionality out of your phone it's silly.
Right off the bat, the battery life was much better, it wasn't even close with standby time being literally days longer, talk time was in the neighborhood of 6 hours longer, some tests had it in the double digits. That's about as drastic as you can get when it comes to battery life in a cell phone. It's silly to say there is no difference between the two.
Never mind that benchmarks in processing are almost double of the S4, saying these two phones are the same but one is bigger is silly.
Also, sPen may seem gimmicky to some but to those that use it and learn to use it, you'll get so much more functionality out of your phone it's silly.
Flipmode
EQOA Refugee
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That actually looks pretty good. I'd buy that in a heartbeat.Holy shit I want! A smart watch worth wearing that doesn't look like a late 80s or 90s calculator watch.
http://phandroid.com/2014/03/18/moto-360-android-watch/
Denamian
Night Janitor
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So my sister just made the switch from iOS to Android and picked up a HTC One this week and I'm looking for some general advice from people who have switched, or at least are familiar with how iOS does things in comparison with Android. She's on the other side of the country so walking her through some things is difficult as I'm not familiar with sense and whatever fuckery AT&T engaged in. The last time I used a stock phone that wasn't a Nexus was the original EVO 4G.
So far she has managed to avoid the imessage issue that a lot of people who switch tend to have, but apparently AT&T installed a messaging app along with whatever was installed by HTC, so she's in notification hell until she figures out how to silence the ones she doesn't want to use. On the bright side she did install Nova Launcher because she doesn't have the update that allows blinkfeed to be disabled.
Hopefully the Android 4.4 update gets rolled out to her soon, as she's still stuck on 4.1. Overall the switch has been less than impressive for her as far as software goes, even though she loves the hardware. Thankfully she is interested in rooting the phone at some point. I'll probably start her off on Cyanogen as the One is supported by their installer.
So far she has managed to avoid the imessage issue that a lot of people who switch tend to have, but apparently AT&T installed a messaging app along with whatever was installed by HTC, so she's in notification hell until she figures out how to silence the ones she doesn't want to use. On the bright side she did install Nova Launcher because she doesn't have the update that allows blinkfeed to be disabled.
Hopefully the Android 4.4 update gets rolled out to her soon, as she's still stuck on 4.1. Overall the switch has been less than impressive for her as far as software goes, even though she loves the hardware. Thankfully she is interested in rooting the phone at some point. I'll probably start her off on Cyanogen as the One is supported by their installer.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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One of my neighbors just got an iPhone and handed it to me yesterday because they were having trouble with their email. I can't believe how lame IOS seems these days compared to android. How in the hell have they never added a back button? I never use an iDevice for more than 5 minutes before I want to throw the damn thing out the window because I have already had to go back to the home screen 4 times just trying to use a single app. My perception is probably somewhat slanted by the fact that I have used Android for 4 years now and don't have much IOS experience but I feel like Android is just way easier to use now for a beginner or an experienced user even if you do have to navigate the carrier crapware.
Joeboo
Molten Core Raider
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I don't want to get into a massive argument here, but I actually owned both phones. I had the Galaxy S4 from April '13 to Sept '13 when I broke it, so about 6 months, and I've now had the Note 3 since last October, so about 6-7 months. Battery life is better on the Note 3, but not drastically so. Yeah, maybe if you do a test of purely idling it'll last a lot longer, but who doesn't use their phone for days at a time? No one, that test is useless.
My usage is similar most days, the vast majority of my usage is data-based(internet browsing and email), I don't make a lot of calls. At the end of the day my S4 used to have about 1/3 of it's battery left on average. My Note 3 is now usually in the 40-50% range at the end of most days. Sure it's better, but drastically so? Not really. Maybe 25% better. Thats probably because almost all of my usage is done with the screen on(as opposed to talking on the phone or idling where the screen is off). I would imagine most people would have similar experiences, definitely anyone who has most of their phone usage with the screen on(internet, media, email, etc)
Heres a benchmark of my Note 3 compared to other top-end phone models & the S4 specifically:
It's definitely better. It's nowhere close to "almost double" the power of the S4. Some of the CPU-related benchmarks are maybe 10-20% higher, while a few(like 3D performance) are nearly 50% better. Nothing is anywhere close to double in any single category, much less the aggregate performance.
Look, the Note 3 is the best phone out on the market right now IMHO, I love it and I recommend it to anyone that asks. But I'm not going to pretend it's night and day drastically better than the S4. And I fully expect the S5 to leapfrog the Note 3s performance when it comes out soon.
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Just in case anyone is interested(I'm sure I'm not the only one with shitty cell coverage at home), I found a solution to this with a couple apps.
Using Llama as Bullock. suggested(you can use Tasker if you already know it, but I found the learning curve a huge fucking pain), I use my home wifi connecting and my airplane mode NOT on to trigger a few things. It turns off the cell radio(secure settings app) so your battery doesn't drain in a couple hours, turns on CSipSimple(I don't want this running on other wifis), and then a minute later(to ensure internet connectivity) calls Locale plugin "GV Settings" to change which phones get forwarded to. When my home wifi disconnects and the cell radio is in airplane mode, that whole process is essentially reversed.
Secure Settings is free but requires root. It's not required, you can work around airplane mode turning off your wifi by using a Llama variable which is basically a flag. But I like some of the functionality Secure Settings provides. Specifically, airplane mode on my phone now means just the cell radio. But you can add or remove radios from that category.
The locale plugin is $4, but it is well worth it for me. I've never programmed an Android app before but holy shit does this process suck. I made a jar on my desktop to do what I wanted(toggle forwarded phones based on args) in 5 minutes. 4-5 hours of trying to understand app programming and why the old gvoice library worked on my desktop but not on my phone was really frustrating. Couldn't even update a fucking textview to do some basic debugging without crashing the app.
Tasker does have one advantage. When you connect to your home wifi, you can't guarantee you have internet connectivity, so you can't know for sure it's a good time to fire off the GV settings plugin to change your forwarding. Tasker can check for that, Llama can't(on wifi).
Crone
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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I had this problem for about a day when I switched to the iPhone until I realized nearly every app for iOS realizes there isn't a back button, and builds one into the app itself. Like there is literally a "back" button or a way to backup on the screen, rather than a hard button directly on the phone. Was easy to get used too.
As for the Android notification settings, you have to get into settings for each of the apps, and just silence them. That's pretty easy fix through the settings for each app.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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See, that's retarded. Everyone knows that you need a back button but you can't add one because the ghost of Steve Jobs says no so there are a bunch of half assed work arounds for it. Apple needs to grow some balls and get with the 2010s.