Android: General Chat

[CVByrne]

Nice read Darren, thoughts on a left field bid by Samsung to take over Nokia for their patents? Sammy could get the blessing from MS to keep the Windows phone side of the company going strong and still maintain the dominance in Android Market.

Maybe not a complete takeover but maybe and investment in Nokia to get the patents to wage and unstoppable attack on Apple. With Nokia and Motorola patents with their own Android would win the war.

6.8bln is nothing to Sammy, aquire Nokia and drive the stake into apples heart.

Nobody else will buy Nokia, nobody has an interest in their existing business enough than Sammy or Sony and the latter don't have the want nor cash.

[CVByrne]

You say that but Im not sure that spec wise it will offer enough to justify the £250 to £300 extra it will cost.

That's for you to decide, but the step from S2 to S3 is huge imo, the day to day use of the S3 makes me realise that. Batterylife in particular.

I'd get the feeling maybe Sammy can get full hd on an amoled plus screen and that would be a joy to behold.

[darrenm]

So how is the Nexus 7

Excellent. The hardware specs with JellyBean mean it's always gonna be smooth and powerful but it's the format and size which make it excellent. I never took my Xoom out as it was big and gangly (as are iPads) so you end up trying to use it as a replacement laptop at home, which they aren't as good at. The Nexus 7 is generally always portrait mode so it feels more like a Kindle. Then with the great resolution, thinness, lightness and speedy feel, you just get a really nice experience.

I took it with me for a pub meal last night as it fits into my pocket. I would never have done that with the Xoom and I doubt many people would want to do it with an iPad. Also as it's Corning glass (as opposed to Samsung non-descript 'scratch-resistant' glass which scratches as easily as a wax crayon), you feel a bit more confident about taking it out and about in the same way as you would a Kindle.

For the price, everyone thinking about getting one should get one. Really can't fault it.

I have yet to find a bad review of it which is good.

For me 7 inch screen is just a tad too small, found that out when I briefly had the Original Samsung Tab and my Daughters Ainol Elf II has confirmed that.

Hopefully Google can get a couple of larger offerings in to the market place which would definitely be of interest to me.

I am still toying with selling my S2 and going for The Galaxy Nexus as there are some really interesting additions in Jellybean which I would love to try out.

I do think that in terms of hardware development we might have reached a bit of a plateau in terms of what can be improved and would be obvious to the end user. I think software may well be the area that sees the most improvement over the next 12 months.

Even if you think it might be too small, I'd recommend having an extended go. The high-res screen really is very usable.

Interesting you say about flogging the S2 for a GN. On my 'table' at work there are 4 people. Me and another guy have the GN, the other 2 guys have S2's. The one S2 user is flogging his S2 to buy a GN and the other one is getting frustrated with his due to the Samsung stuff in it and is currently receiving advice from me on how to flash AOKP.

I notice the GN has suddenly hiked up in price again, it seems they've become much more desirable since JellyBean and now the initial furore of the S3 has gone. I don't think you can go wrong buying one, it'll cost you maybe £50-60 on top of your S2 going by current eBay prices.

[CVByrne]

I always think people are like me in wanting new phones and not old ones. So I'd personally wait for the next Nexus in Oct or Nov instead of buying last year's nexus. I'd muck around with custom roms to freshen up the S2 like I did with the S. Then get the new phone.

But each to their own. Spoilt for choice anyway these days. HTC need to cop on and put a whopping battery in their next phone otherwise their slide will continue which will be bad for everyone

[darrenm]

Nice read Darren, thoughts on a left field bid by Samsung to take over Nokia for their patents? Sammy could get the blessing from MS to keep the Windows phone side of the company going strong and still maintain the dominance in Android Market.

Maybe not a complete takeover but maybe and investment in Nokia to get the patents to wage and unstoppable attack on Apple. With Nokia and Motorola patents with their own Android would win the war.

6.8bln is nothing to Sammy, aquire Nokia and drive the stake into apples heart.

Nobody else will buy Nokia, nobody has an interest in their existing business enough than Sammy or Sony and the latter don't have the want nor cash.

I can't see it being worth that much to them. No matter how much Samsung play the victim in this, they're hardly trying very hard in the courtroom and they're still happily providing components to Apple for all their devices. + they're getting Google involved now with the rise of Nexus devices tripping over patents where Google can't hide behind the manufacturer implementations. So with Motorola patents, Samsung's own patents, Google having their noses pushed out and finally but most significantly, the Android notification bar pending patent, I don't think Samsung are in a lot of trouble. If anything, Apple spewing patent claims left, right and centre are doing them a lot of damage because they're all getting invalidated.

[CVByrne]

So what becomes of Nokia? I like Nokia and want their style of hardware to keep going, it's more Nokia that has me interested in getting a win8 phone than the Windows Phone OS

I think RIM will be ok once they refocus the whole business on their core area of business phones and services. The business types still like them and they will survive and even thrive a bit in their neche

I'd love an Android Nokia phone, and with HTCs decline there is an opening for people a bit tired of Samsung but who want some equally quality hardware.

[CVByrne]

HTCs problem is what I had said back 18 months ago that they can't compete with Samsung in hardware, yet they persist in making the near identical phone to Samsung S series yet slightly inferior. At least Sony go after the camera market with quality smartphone cameras. Motorola don't care anymore as they were bought by Google.

But HTC need something new to crawl out from underneath the Samsung shadow. Sammy have become the default android phone now. Which isn't good for any consumer in my opinion.

[The_Rev]

My phone is almost two years old now and it still feels awesome. I really don't know what I would be looking for in an upgrade. Maybe a 1080p video camera but that's about it. The Nexus S is still a superb bit of kit, it genuinely does everything I would want it to do.

[darrenm]

Not sure if I've posted this before:

The last 4 Nexus devices. (Xoom wasn't technically a Nexus, but it's close enough).

3 have Jelly Bean, 1 about to.

[CVByrne]

The Nexus S is too expensive still. I was going to buy it to put my Irish sim in and for a general "problem not wise to bring the S3" situation, and life a festival or stag party etc..

It's too expensive though for a 2 year old phone. Maybe when the next nexus is out it'll drop in value big time.

[mykeyb]

RIM could be in worse trouble than Nokia as a least they have an option to make handset with different OS's on. Cannot see RIM doing that and if their updated OS flops they are in big trouble.

Used to see loads of Blackberries in meeting a couple of years ago, not so much these days as they are either Apple or Androids.

They do seem quite popular with teenagers obviously for BM. Maybe if they could target that market with some cheap handsets they could do OK

[darrenm]

Oh yeah, RIM are buggered. They've been a dead, er, company walking for some time. They've got nothing to fall back on like Nokia.

[Eames]

Sooo chaps.

Upgrade time is speeding round the corner.... I'm currently on an HTC Desire (Froyo) and I want something new and fancy.

Looking at S3 or Galaxy Nexus - any suggestions/advice as to where to go.

Apple is an absolute no no since Mrs E's 4s is a hateful piece of crap.

[The_Rev]

S3 is newer, Galaxy Nexus has 4.1 now.

S3 will probably get 4.1 before Xmas. Galaxy Nexus will probably get 4.2 of whatever the "K" (Key Lime Pie, apparently) version of Android is called.

Personally I'd go with the Galaxy Nexus although if I was looking at getting a phone to last me two years then I'd probably just sit on the Desire for three or four more months and buy the next Nexus handset at launch.

[limpid]

How did it become acceptable to lock yourself into a variable price two years contract? More importantly, how were people conditioned to look forward to getting their new shackles?

[The_Rev]

I'm not locked into a two year contract, I bought my handset SIM free and have a SIM only tariff which I think gives me extremely generous voice, text and data packages.

However, I do think that two years is what I am looking to get out of a phone when I buy one. I could sell my handset tomorrow and replace it with a new one if I wanted, but I dont want to. My phone is still awesome, it just got updated to the latest version of Android so it still feels fresh and it does everything I need it to do and then some. It will definitely last me until the next generation of (currently unannounced) handsets are on shelves and it just happens to be a coincidence that two year contracts are also what vendors are pushing on customers.

Financially it works out about the same whichever route you take, its just whether you want to front load most of the cost and have cheaper bills or spread the cost more evenly with more expensive bills. I can afford to front load and prefer the freedom that offers (even if I havent actually used it) but I dont feel the need to get sucked into the annual upgrade cycle. If I do buy a new phone then I will try to get it while it is at the beginning of its shelf life though, maybe that's just me trying to get the most out of something while it is still teh new hotness but I still think it is a good policy if you are looking to buy something which you will use every day for a couple of years.

I also kinda enjoy the big leap in performance that you experience if you miss every other generation of hardware as opposed to incremental upgrades. I think the only phone I have ever kept for just one year was my HTC Hero, and that was always the intention as it was a low/mid range smartphone which I was using just to see whether I wanted to make the jump from feature phones to smart phones.

[CVByrne]

Sooo chaps.

Upgrade time is speeding round the corner.... I'm currently on an HTC Desire (Froyo) and I want something new and fancy.

Looking at S3 or Galaxy Nexus - any suggestions/advice as to where to go.

Apple is an absolute no no since Mrs E's 4s is a hateful piece of crap.

If you're upgrading within the next month or so then the new nexus won't be on sale yet. Goes on sale in early December usually.

So I'd say Galaxy S3 or HTC one X or S. All three are superb.

I wouldn't touch the galaxy nexus as it's hardware is old now. Hardware wise is is inferior in every single way to the S3, Samsung the galaxy nexus is a modified galaxy S2.

So your choices are with Samsung or HTC and the differences are as follows. The One X is nicer to hold and look at but has no removable sd card slot and the battery life is below average. The one s is a smaller screened version of the one X but has better batterylife due to its S4 processor.

The S3 is the best phone on the market and that's why it's selling in the multi millions. Some people don't like the weight, and design or the plastic chassis. But aside from that the phone is faultless.

Most on here are android veterans and love having the nexus phones because they get vanilla android and get the new updates a couple of months before everyone else. But since you've been on a Desire for two years I can't imagine you'll be too worried about timing of updates.

My opinion on the matter is this, HTC and Samsung take Google Android and improve it by adding their own features and enhancements, so there is a little wait after each release of android before they layer their enhancements and release to their phones.

If you want a single recommendation from me, and go get the Galaxy S3 it is simply the best phone you can by bar none, it has the best hardware and it has the most features and that's why you should get it.

Truly stunning phone.

[CVByrne]

How did it become acceptable to lock yourself into a variable price two years contract? More importantly, how were people conditioned to look forward to getting their new shackles?

Exactly. I have sold my Galaxy S and S2 a year later for around 60% of the price it cost me to buy. So that's a brand new phone every year for £16 a month essentially, plus about £10 month in credit and the freedom of no contract and an unlocked phone.

There is no reason what so ever to get a phone on a locked in contract. Ever. Get a a years loan to buy the phone and it'll work out cheaper even

[Eames]

Sooo chaps.

Upgrade time is speeding round the corner.... I'm currently on an HTC Desire (Froyo) and I want something new and fancy.

Looking at S3 or Galaxy Nexus - any suggestions/advice as to where to go.

Apple is an absolute no no since Mrs E's 4s is a hateful piece of crap.

If you're upgrading within the next month or so then the new nexus won't be on sale yet. Goes on sale in early December usually.

So I'd say Galaxy S3 or HTC one X or S. All three are superb.

I wouldn't touch the galaxy nexus as it's hardware is old now. Hardware wise is is inferior in every single way to the S3, Samsung the galaxy nexus is a modified galaxy S2.

So your choices are with Samsung or HTC and the differences are as follows. The One X is nicer to hold and look at but has no removable sd card slot and the battery life is below average. The one s is a smaller screened version of the one X but has better batterylife due to its S4 processor.

The S3 is the best phone on the market and that's why it's selling in the multi millions. Some people don't like the weight, and design or the plastic chassis. But aside from that the phone is faultless.

Most on here are android veterans and love having the nexus phones because they get vanilla android and get the new updates a couple of months before everyone else. But since you've been on a Desire for two years I can't imagine you'll be too worried about timing of updates.

My opinion on the matter is this, HTC and Samsung take Google Android and improve it by adding their own features and enhancements, so there is a little wait after each release of android before they layer their enhancements and release to their phones.

If you want a single recommendation from me, and go get the Galaxy S3 it is simply the best phone you can by bar none, it has the best hardware and it has the most features and that's why you should get it.

Truly stunning phone.

Cheers Conor......

I like the HTC skin on my Desire but the battery life is scandalous and by all accounts they haven't sorted this for the One.

The S3 looks lovely but I like to try and do something a bit different rather than plum for the thing every other bugger has. (and no - I have no interest in a Windows phone)

I thought the Nexus could be fun but I will can't be arsed with rooting and custom roms etc. I just want a decent skin atop a quality piece of hardware........

[limpid]

I thought the Nexus could be fun but I will can't be arsed with rooting and custom roms etc.

You don't have to do either of those things. They are completely optional. You will still get earlier updates than everyone else.