Technology Android

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Thanks man.

I got my wireless charger today. Pretty neat but the best part is the cable that connected to the charge pad was a Fast Charge cable. So I got another Fast Charge cable to use elsewhere now.

Samsung Pay ended that charger promo and now has one where using Pay between the 11th and 31st will get you a free $30 gift card to places like eBay, Nike, Whole Foods, etc. I took advantage of it and got the Best Buy one. Samsung really wants people to use their service, I know, but these promos have been pretty ridiculous as of late. Despite that, I saw a headline that said Samsung lost a lot of money last year on Pay. I think it was $16.8 million. But it works in so many more places than Android or Apple pay and Samsung is probably the #1 Android OEM right now, right? I guess people are too intimidated to make a Samsung Account and link their cards with it. I know a lot of banks don't support Samsung Pay too, so that's a big thing.

Speaking of the 6P, I added my NP to the beta/dev program just two days ago and this morning I saw that it had updated to the Preview for N. They changed the Settings menu around a bit but everything else (apps) seem to be organized the same. There was considerable lag when navigating through the apps. It started to stutter and lag when I was switching between Hulu, Netflix, and HBO Now. Instantly regretted updating to a beta despite knowing the possible road bumps ahead of time.

And speaking of cheap phones, what ever became of that Android phone in India that was cheap as hell too? It worked well but it infringed a lot of patents an copyrights? After reading that headline I didn't hear about that phone again. Which is a shame because it was targeted at people in poverty and getting them connected.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
So turns out the S7 bootloader is locked. No worries. I knew I was pretty set on not rooting and maintaining Samsung Pay long before the S7 was even announced. Once I learned tripping Knox disabled Pay, I had pretty much already decided.

After seeing how fast the phone is, I can't imagine needing root for SetCPU or stuff like that.

I do miss Titanium Backup, though. The app was great for backing up sideloaded apps I had after a reset but I can't imagine needing to do a reset unless something goes wrong. Hopefully that never happens.
 

Casey

Well-Known Member
Staff member
So turns out the S7 bootloader is locked. No worries. I knew I was pretty set on not rooting and maintaining Samsung Pay long before the S7 was even announced. Once I learned tripping Knox disabled Pay, I had pretty much already decided.

After seeing how fast the phone is, I can't imagine needing root for SetCPU or stuff like that.

I do miss Titanium Backup, though. The app was great for backing up sideloaded apps I had after a reset but I can't imagine needing to do a reset unless something goes wrong. Hopefully that never happens.

Literally every Android phone I've had, I've first unlocked the bootloader and rooted.

I got my 6P yesterday and this is the first time I haven't done that, and it's for the same reason you're talking about.......as with Samsung Pay, you can't use Android Pay with an unlocked bootloader or root. Although it hasn't launched here yet, it's rumored to launch here next month and I'll want to use it. The other reason was purely that I haven't really used any features that require root in the last 6-12 months on my N6. Android has filled in so many gaps that it's just not as necessary as it used to be.

Thanks for letting me know about the Beta Program being laggy, I suspected that might be the case. I'll wait til the second preview before I put it on my Nexus Player and perhaps the third preview before I put it on the N6P.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Yeah, I rebooted the Player a few times and still had that awful lag. I didn't check the NP subreddit to see if they had the same issues or not. It could just be me but they were bad.

I miss MinMinGuard from Xposed. Now I have all these ads in my apps and it makes me miss it a ton. And I don't think blocking in-app ads is possible without root access though I don't see it different from blocking ads in a browser.

I used Pay twice today. Once at the market and the girl was only halfway through saying "I don't think our unit supports this" before it just said "processing" and printed out a receipt. Same thing at another store where an older lady behind me was looking at my screen as I placed it near the unit and it accepted my payment right away. She must have thought I was up to something.

Ultimately, I'll likely have to live without root but it doesn't seem like a big deal. I was ready for it and better yet, I was planning on it being this way because I had high hopes for Pay. And it delivered.

And I love this wireless charging. I know I'm touting tech that's already a few years old but I don't know how I lived so long with my S3 without all this.

About Android and Samsung Pay, it sucks their rollout is so slow globally. Even in the US, banks are taking some time to adopt Samsung Pay. I'm lucky my parents credit card and my debit card are both through Bank of America and they are fully supported but there are some other big banks dragging their feet and be it for Samsung or Android Pay, a lot of people are missing out on something quite convenient.
 

THEV1LL4N

Well-Known Member
3) I also met someone last week who had a Xiaomi phone. It cost him like £100 and it looked, felt, and performed like a £300 phone. Once they launch outside of China/India, shit's gonna get real.

I've been thinking this for a while. They need to launch properly outside of Asia and South America. They are planning to enter the American market and I hope the European markets very soon.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
I have the Gear VR. It's incredible. You basically get Rift internals for fraction of the price because most of Oculus internals are already there on the new Galaxy phones.
Is it really that great? I haven't downloaded the free 6 games they offered as yet but I did try Netflix and the stock photos they gave out of the box. It's cool but I don't know what else I'd use it for. I have a spare one my mom didn't want that we got for free with our S7s and I was thinking of selling it.
 

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Is it really that great? I haven't downloaded the free 6 games they offered as yet but I did try Netflix and the stock photos they gave out of the box. It's cool but I don't know what else I'd use it for. I have a spare one my mom didn't want that we got for free with our S7s and I was thinking of selling it.

It's awesome, but games are secondary. There's not THAT much content yet, but try to find some VR 3d videos, or apps. It's quite a mind blow.
 

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Also, speaking of Xiaomi, there's the newest Mi5 review, it took everyone by big surprise and if that's not the phone of the year, I don't know what will be (in short, it competes with the S7 edging it out at times)
http://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_5-review-1411p9.php

It's the best performer, has the best camera sensor , battery life, build quality, several other stuffs that it's basically better at than any other phone, it degraded the HTC One M8's ultrapixel camera and included it as a mere selfie camera and even if you go for the 128gb version it costs half the flagship price.

And some quotes from the review so you know what I was talking about with Xiaomi :

"Xiaomi made it easy for us. The Mi 5 is one of the most beautiful, most powerful, and most capable smartphones to date and there is little to dwell on it. If the Mi 5 is available in your geographic region, our recommendation is to grab one right away."

"Throughout our review we found the Mi 5 acing most of the key tests, which easily puts it around the top of the flagship chain. Considering the Mi 5 costs half the price of a Galaxy S7 or similar, it's an easy recommendation."

"The iPhone 6s may be inferior in every way, but it's iconic design and iOS ecosystem are personal favorite for many."

"Xiaomi Mi 5 won our hearts back at the MWC in Barcelona. But having it around, playing with it, and handling it for a week, we must admit we are falling in love. The Mi 5 is one of the best looking smartphones to date, with exceptional looks and design."

"The lightweight Mi 5 is an absolute pleasure to handle and the cleverly crafted metal frame makes up for the slippery rear glass. The Xiaomi Mi 5 has the best grip among all other dual-glass smartphones we've met - snapping pictures, browsing, talking - there was not a single moment we feared we may drop it."

"The viewing angles are impressive as well, there is hardly any color shift or contrast loss when looking the Mi 5's display at an angle. It isn't AMOLED grade regarding contrast, but it sure is the next best thing."

"We ran our battery test and the Xiaomi Mi 5 scored a 92h rating, which means you can count on the battery to last just a few hours short of 4 days if you do an hour each of calling, browsing the web and video playback a day."

"The single-core performance is where the Kryo CPU shines. It did noticeably better than any other Android competitor, including the Galaxy S7 Exynos's Mongoose core, and it indeed doubled the performance of its predecessor (the Cortex-A57 within the Nexus 6P)."

"The dynamic range is high, which lately becomes a must for a flagship camera. Overall the processing is really mature and we consider those samples among the best 16MP ones we've seen so far.

The foliage is way better than the mess we saw on the Galaxy S7/S7 edge with more resolved detail and distinctive shapes even on the tiniest of grass and trees' blossoms. The green color is more accurate, too."
 

Pittsey

Knock, Knock...
Staff member
I only rooted because of the fact I am using a phone that is over 2 years old. Brings some additional life to it. With a Nexus, I wouldn't bother.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Well, we US folks likely won't be able to root our S7s due to the locked bootloader. The Exynos, international versions should be fine, though. They've got root already.

I don't know what I'll do when the time comes that I'll absolutely need root apps to make battery life better by shutting down processes and such. I'll just enjoy the phone for now and deal with it then.
 

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member

Yeah, Qualcomm seems to be on a downwards spiral. After they made a core that doesn't overheat, it's still not energy efficient compared to Samsung. They've been losing to Exynos 3 years in a row.
But to sweeten the deal, the Snapdragon is slightly faster in single core performance and GPU and the S7 still is efficient enough on the whole, that it provides very good battery life.
Also, the US only gets Snapdragon, from what I heard, while Exynos is the global one - same story as with the S3.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Yeah, Qualcomm seems to be on a downwards spiral. After they made a core that doesn't overheat, it's still not energy efficient compared to Samsung. They've been losing to Exynos 3 years in a row.
But to sweeten the deal, the Snapdragon is slightly faster in single core performance and GPU and the S7 still is efficient enough on the whole, that it provides very good battery life.
Also, the US only gets Snapdragon, from what I heard, while Exynos is the global one - same story as with the S3.
Yeah, but the international S3 had ROM issues, right? I don't think it got CM or it just had some handicap in regards to custom ROMs. Kind of the flip situation now.

We SD guys also likely won't get root. I'm not sure if anyone has successfully petitioned for an unlocked bootloader, but that's what they're doing now on forums.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Package Disablers are the new Task Managers. I stopped using Package Disabler Pro and my battery life has been pretty much the same. Doesn't do shit and I'm sure disabling apps, aside from the obvious loss of use by the phone, also hurts battery life since the OS still manages to optimize it properly and better than a third party app can.

Since the US SD S7 still doesn't have root and probably never will, I've started using AdGuard Premium as an ad blocker for my apps and browser. Actually, I've used it for a month now and it works very well. I have unlimited data but it has saved me a few GBs by blocking ads from TV Show Favs, Weatherbug, and Chrome. At least that's what the counter is telling me. It's been blocking a lot of ads from Google too, either from the Play Store or the Play Services process.

But most of you guys have root so it doesn't matter, really.

Samsung Pay has failed me only twice so far. Once at a small shop that had a weird credit card reader and the other time I've forgotten already. I think it was at a 7-11 that was shutting down and its terminal wasn't working properly a few days prior to closing. Whatever. It works everywhere else. I've read stories of people that go to McDonald's or something and the manager tells them their Samsung won't work on their terminals and they make a bet for a free meal if it does and people get their free meals. It's a cheeky bastard thing to do but it's still pretty funny.

Are there any drawbacks to using non-standard charging methods? If I use my charging cable, I always have fast charging enabled. I don't do it often and maybe three or four times a week. But at night, I keep my wireless charger by my bed and I charge overnight using the wireless charger. Will either method deteriorate battery health any faster than doing the same with a regular, non-fast-charger?
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
You guys ever go back to a random, earlier page in this thread and read what all we thought was going to happen and then ultimately what did happen with Android, OEMs, Nexus, etc?

Interesting read. If this board ever goes down, we need to find a way to preserve this thread. Maybe download it or something.
 

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