Android: General Chat

[Davkaus]

The only problem I have with the Nexus 7 is the lack of SD card. 8GB of storage is shit. 16GB isn't much better, and charging an extra £40 for an extra 8GB, when you can get a 64GB SD card for that leaves a very sour taste in my mouth. I'd definitely get it if I could add my own SD card, but the storage limit is a deal breaker for me.

It's ok if it's at the upper end of your budget. It's probably the best you'll get in that price range. I'd rather pay a bit more and get the Galaxy tab 2.

[Dodgyknees]

What is the best Android tablet? Is the Galaxy note any good? Is this Nexus 7 good?

The Nexus 7 is by far the best. It's amazing piece of kit. The Note is a phone. I use it at the moment as I like the big screen.

Maybe it wasn't the note... I saw an advert with James Franco using it..

Anyway, I am looking to get one to sync with my S3.

[leviramsey]

There is the Galaxy Note 10.1, which is a tablet...

[CVByrne]

But all the Samsung tablets are pretty poor. Nexus form factor is the one that is most usable for Android as it's closer to a phone size. Also its price too makes it a great purchase. It's slowly growing on me as an Internet browser when at home instead of my Series 9. Once I do a bit of typing then I prefer the laptop.

But the Nexus 7 really is a great device. I wouldn't use any other tablet more. Simple true fact.

[darrenm]

The only problem I have with the Nexus 7 is the lack of SD card. 8GB of storage is shit. 16GB isn't much better, and charging an extra £40 for an extra 8GB, when you can get a 64GB SD card for that leaves a very sour taste in my mouth. I'd definitely get it if I could add my own SD card, but the storage limit is a deal breaker for me.

It's ok if it's at the upper end of your budget. It's probably the best you'll get in that price range. I'd rather pay a bit more and get the Galaxy tab 2.

I've got the 16GB and don't find it too much of an issue. I could only fit a few films on there for a recent camping trip rather than loads.

Google are pushing it as a cloud content consumption device. In the states that's great, but when you don't have Google Music (officially) over here, it's not quite as useful.

The 8GB is obviously a loss-leader. They make nothing on the 8GB in order to push the £159.99 (or $199.99) bracket, and then upsell to the 16GB. Worked with me.

If you're really worried about having loads more space then you can root it and use USB OTG.

[CVByrne]

I was heavily critical of the lack of storage for the Nexus 7. But given I don't and never will use it for music or photos or anything like that, I've my 14 or so gb for video. Which is working out fine so far. I put a series on there, currently rewatching the wire. It's fine and it's so handy for my regular flights back to Dublin. You can hold it in one hand and slip into a pocket when boarding or disembarking. It's great.

A testament to it was the fact I brought my ultrabook with me this weekend when home in Ireland. I had to get a 90min bus journey from the airport too. I didn't use the ultrabook at all for the entire weekend. I also didn't need to charge the Nexus 7 for the weekend and I never turned it off.

It's the ultimate portable media player and Internet device. Amazing device, amazing price.

[Ingram85]

I was heavily critical of the lack of storage for the Nexus 7. But given I don't and never will use it for music or photos or anything like that, I've my 14 or so gb for video. Which is working out fine so far. I put a series on there, currently rewatching the wire. It's fine and it's so handy for my regular flights back to Dublin. You can hold it in one hand and slip into a pocket when boarding or disembarking. It's great.

A testament to it was the fact I brought my ultrabook with me this weekend when home in Ireland. I had to get a 90min bus journey from the airport too. I didn't use the ultrabook at all for the entire weekend. I also didn't need to charge the Nexus 7 for the weekend and I never turned it off.

It's the ultimate portable media player and Internet device. Amazing device, amazing price.

Wondered where you were going with that sentence for a second

[CVByrne]

Darren take note on how to make an amazing app.

Is it August, check it out and read the reviews.

[LancsVillan]

Phone - desire HD - just froze so had to drop battery out, it then decided it was first time switch on. Apps, photos, music all gone and back to Android 2.3.5

Wtf is that all about?

[darrenm]

re: Nexus 7 storage. A full native resolution HD video with modern H.264 codecs is about 500MB / hour, so a movie is generally about 1GB.

I use Google Music for streaming, then the only thing that takes up the space is all these new high-detail 3D games which can be about 1GB each. They're all mostly crap compared to NSS anyway

Is it August looks amazing. I can only hope to one day get somewhere near that standard.

LancsVillan - I reckon you've got a dodgy phone. It's obviously corrupted the data which has led to a wipe of /data on bootup.

[CVByrne]

Ok my Galaxy Note has been prised away from me by a colleague I promised it too. Basically I'll pick up a Note 2 in the new year when a reasonable price. It's not too big to be uncomfortable in jeans or jacket pocket and it's a great device. Software aside as the old Touchwiz was glitchy and noticably so coming from a S3 or the buttery slickness of Galaxy Nexus.

So speaking of the Nexus, I'm now back on it and still loving Jelly Bean. But I have my critiques of it after another days use. Mainly relating to why Touchwiz is still worth Samsung doing.

I've mentioned how boring the menu looks compared to Touchwiz's colourful and polished menu system. But there are also menu features Samsung added in there which I liked, I'll list them.

-The 4 preset screen modes, mainly changing the contrast and vibrancy of the screen, I liked them. I want my screen in "Vibrant mode".

-Also I liked how I could change the font style, I use Helvetica S on the S3, while Galaxy Nexus has it's default custom font.

-Power Saving, Samsung scored well with me for it's lowering the clock speed and shutting off cores in its power saving mode. It works, I've tried it and I like the feature.

-Also and this may be minor, I liked having a different homescreen and lock screen wallpaper? Homescreen is dark to save battery while my lock screen is bright and vibrant. A little thing I know, but I liked it.

-There are loads more options in Touchwiz on the S3, it's just adding more levels of customisation, but there are no more ones I'm that concerned with to list here.

I know there are apps that can add the functionality I'm about to list, but having it pre installed and Samsung created makes it more compatable, stable and integrated.

Smart Stay is a great feature. It works almost all the time and it's great to have it in Touchwiz. Also the quick toggles in the notifications, from slider brightness bar and Samsungs power saving mode toggle. It's great and has to be added into core android sooner or later. Also I had to download Double Twist and MX Player, for Music and Video, I used the Samsung Music player as it had play controls in the notification menu and accessable from lock screen. No biggie, but it's worth noting how good the Samsung apps are that you don't need 3rd party ones.

I'll run down the rest now. The messaging client on Galaxy Nexus is unusable. I need a new one (suggestions please), the S3 one is superb, from the first S it's been superb, the text box grows as you type so you can easily re read everything you've typed, also the nice colour changes for each persons texts makes it easier to reread. It's really a superb texting client in Touchwiz. Can I get an aping one from the market?

Also the contacts section is not accessable from the dialer without pressing menus and other things to get there. It has a quick contacts part which is half way there, but why not just redirect to the full contacts? I'll explain why this is a problem for me. With contacts in the dialler you can do away with a seperate contacts app, and just have the dialler be both, meaning one persistent icon in the tray that does both.

The final thing to mention is that the S3 uses the space at the bottom of the phone well, with no onscreen touch keys robbing you of space. But the ditching of the multitasking key for a dedicated menu key, yes yes yes. Samsung keep doing this, ignore Google. Google are wrong and you are right. I use the settings key far more than I do the multitasking key. So simply I want it as a persistent key.

The camera on the S3 is much better too, from the software to the lense. It's just an all round improved camera.

Also, headphones jack on the bottom is annoying too, it means volume up changes orientation when you phone is in your pocked and when in your hand.

So there are my opinions of what the S3, mainly just Touchwiz on the S3 does better than pure Google Android.

I'll follow up in my next post about what the Galaxy Nexus does better.

[jim]

Been playing with the S3 this afternoon. Going to take some time to get used to it but so far so good!

[CVByrne]

Right, the Galaxy Nexus, many of its advantages are down to Jelly Bean, an advantage that it'll lose once the S3 gets JB. But then when Android 4.2 Key Lime Pie is out early next year the Nexus will again get the 3 month advantage over the S3. So I'm considering the Jelly Bean features a guage of a 3 month per 9 month cycle the Nexus will be ahead of the S3.

Firstly, the Galaxy Nexus is a superbly well made phone, the most rugged headline phone Samsung has made. It doesn't have shiny silvery paint that'll chip off the moment you drop it like the S3. Also I'm a fan of the design, it's got the textured back with lip like the S2 which I'm a big fan of. Plus the curved glass just feels better, feels like it' more "made for humans" than the S3.

Now onto the software, Jelly Bean really is the pinnacle of mobile software today. It's so silky smooth and feature rich it puts iOS to shame. Not to mention Google will have another software iteration out half a year before iOS 7 can debut.

But the 2 features that really show how Google is really innovating more than anyone in this sphere are, Google Now and the Android Notification System.

The former is only in its infancy but it has such huge potential. It's so much more innovative than a Siri for example. You can ask Siri things you can do or Google yourself. What Google Now does is give you info you need that yo have either forgotten about or didn't know you needed it. As the feature grows it will become the must have feature that will ensure total domination in the mobile sphere for Google as it's not something that rivals can copy, they simply don't have access to the data Google does.

Then there is the Android Notification System, soon to be granted a patent to strike back at Apple for doing their own copying of Android. The Notification system in Jelly Bean has really become the brilliant thing it was always maturing to be. It's now got so granular and you can disable apps access to it. You can now customise the notifications to a new level. It's excellent and apps are already taking advantage of the new granular levels of information and interaction in the notifications bar. Take Battery Widget? Reborn! not only is it the best name for an app ever, but it utilises the new notifications.

Since this is vanilla android, it is free from plenty of the useless apps that come installed on the S3. All Samsungs stores, are of no interest. Also the S planner, why tinker with Google Calendar if you're just making it worse? Also it'll be interesting if the little glitches on the S3 software are gone with JellyBean as the homscreen redraw is a Samsung specific glitch. So it's down to the skin. With the Nexus I know from here on in it'll be buttery smooth.

Then there is the fact a Pure Google device means that no matter how old this phone gets there will be a 3 month period every 9 or so months where this phone is back on top of the pile with the latest software, untouched. It means, to me anyway, that this phone will have more longevity than any other on the market. Even the S3.

Finally, price. The Galaxy Nexus is over £100 cheaper than the S3, which is quite a margin and one which makes the Galaxy Nexus the best value handset out there. You could get a Galaxy Nexus AND a Nexus 7 for £150 less than the mid range iPhone 5. I mean seriously!!!?!

It's easy to see now with the benefit of actually owning and using one why the Galaxy Nexus has such a strong fan base and so many veterain Android users on it. It's still a cracking phone nearly a year on from its release.

[Dodgyknees]

Looking for a new theme for the s3. Which ones are good?

[darrenm]

You are becoming enlightened, oh Irish one. I mainly agree with the advantages of the S3 you've listed, but they're pretty personal preferences.

I don't care about screen presets, default is fine.

I prefer the bland mono menus to the colourful Samsung menus.

I prefer the Roboto font over anything else out there (I've also put it on my computer ).

Your phone has to go in your pocket upside down so the headphones socket has to be on the bottom.

I don't mind the software buttons, they move out of the way anytime something is full screen so it doesn't matter.

But.. yes the power saving stuff in the S3 is excellent, and while the GN is smoother, the S3 definitely does stuff faster. If you open the play store (without being cached) on both, it will open quicker on the S3.

Not sure what you mean about the contacts though. I just press the dialler and go to the contacts section (3rd tab). It shows my favourite contacts at the top, then I scroll down for all contacts.

[CVByrne]

It's really interesting how there is things to like a lot about both devices.

Obviously the menus, fonts etc are just down to preference. As is the position of the headphones jack, if you don't get many calls you don't need the phone in your pocket upside down.

But a point overall is that Samsung is adding in options, these don't take away from anything, but they can add to the customisation. For example I change my font and screen settings from their default.

The contacts thing is that it's quick phone contacts, if you press on them it dials that person. That's it. While on the S3 the contacts brings you to the full contacts where you can do everything from swipe left to tex, right to call or edit the contact. Send a whatsapp.

But the overall point here is, people give out a lot about custom skins. When it's clear most of whats added is good. Like the quick toggle bar in the notifications and stuff like smart stay etc.. Samsungs skin is great. The problem is the 3 month wait and that's for headline devices only, the S2 will be 4months and what about Key Lime Pie? Will the S2 be ditched then??

[jim]

I'm noticing a yellow tint when you look at the screen straight on but if you tilt the phone slightly It goes and looks perfect. Is this normal or do I have a dodgy screen?

[CVByrne]

Looking for a new theme for the s3. Which ones are good?

Nove Launcher or Apex Launcher.

[CVByrne]

I'm noticing a yellow tint when you look at the screen straight on but if you tilt the phone slightly It goes and looks perfect. Is this normal or do I have a dodgy screen?

Settings -> Display -> Screen Mode

Choose from the 4 preset modes there and see if you find a setting you like.

[darrenm]

The contacts thing is that it's quick phone contacts, if you press on them it dials that person. That's it. While on the S3 the contacts brings you to the full contacts where you can do everything from swipe left to tex, right to call or edit the contact. Send a whatsapp.

Ah. tap the contact picture. And then again.