Technology Android

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I'm happy about"doze" (although I wish it was configurable) and mostly about the USB type C connector finally making it to the phones, even if it prevents ultra-slim devices from being able to have it. It's otherwise really cool - it's also reversible like the Apple connector, but much more conveniently implemented due to being easier to plug it in.
That said, personally I almost dropped wired charging - I have a wireless charger at home and on my desk, it's super convenient as instead of random place on the desk I just place my phone on the charging thingy and that's all. Apart from traveling I don't remember the last time I ran out of battery since it's almost constantly around 80-100%.

The Nexus phones.. dunno. The 5X is not fully a spiritual successor of the N5. Actually, the original N5 came with cutting edge processor at that time, while the N5X comes with an old processor that nobody wants to use in their phones anymore but has no choice until a few months from now. If the N5X was what the N5 was back in the day it would come with the Snapdragon 820 - then it'd be the same story, and the phone would be twice as fast as anything else on the market, which was the case with the N5.
In the meantime, the N5X comes with an overheating, power draining, underpowered 808 on an old process, which lags ~40% both in performance and battery efficiency behind the 8-month old Exynos that even Chinese makers like Xiaomi use these days.
Props for not going with marketing and using the inframous 810, which is made on an even more ancient process though, Huawei went there on the N6P though.
Also they dropped the camera OIS and wireless charger - all those things that were major points for the original N5. Only the maker and size are the same. I think even the design of the original N5 was nicer, the N5X looks cheaper but it's not ( retail price-wise only). Still despite all of that it's not a bad phone, just not as big of a thing as the prior Nexus phones were. And it's still the better one of the two, compared with the 6P, which is just a bad deal.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Well, I saw the prices of the 6P and it seems reasonable for the Us at $499, but overseas, it shoots up fast beyond $600. $600 is a lot for a phone and I'm not sure I'd buy any phone outright for $600. $500, though only $100 less, seems like something I could still manage.

Is OIS really that big of a deal? I thought it was until I saw that the 6P was second only to the S6 or Note 5, I can't remember which, in terms of photo quality. MKBHD mentioned this in his video.That gives me some confidence in the camera.

The fact that its using the current Samsung display also make this phone a steal, in my book, compared to the S6 or Note 5. Two things i've said I cared about was screen and camera, and the 6P seems to be great at both. USB-C is neat and I believe it has turbo charging, right? That'll be big.

I just want a Nexus phone. Since the N4, there has always been a big flaw in the Nexus devices. I still have the Nexus One's fanfare in mind when I think of the Nexus and that was it had cutting edge software, obviously, but also hardware too. I believe the Snapdragon was debuted on that phone first. Since then, I've been subconsciously expecting the Nexus to have the next latest and greatest chipset in it that puts it head and shoulders above the the rest. And that just hasn't been the case.

People were upset the GalNex was abandoned so early, and rightfully so. The N4 had a slight price hike, right? The N5 had some battery or camera issues. The N6 had another set of issues people were upset about. The 6P has its flaws on paper, I'm sure, but no one is complaining about anything major. Camera is great, screen is great. The CPU is the one that's notorious for overheating? That might come to light once people start using it, but for now, there's no word on that. It's relatively affordable too, at $500. To me, that's kind of the perfect phone. I just wish it was also sold through carriers since I could just incorporate the cost into the plan, but... that's ok.

My frame of reference is my 2012 S3. So I'm eons behind in tech years with the current tech. 720p screen. I think 1 GB of RAM? Officially stuck on JB still. A Nexus device might be just what I need. I've always wanted one just for the software updates alone. Now it seems the hardware isn't nerfed either and is somewhat competitive, if not ahead of, with the competition.
 

Casey

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Marshmallow rolls out tomorrow for Nexus devices. I need to backup and wipe my N6, because you can't upgrade from the developer preview of Marshmallow to the final version. Should get the updates straight through on my Nexus 7 2013 and Nexus Player though.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Looks like people are liking Marshmallow so far. Why isn't the N4 supported, though? I'm not sure if it got Lollipop, but the device isn't that old. It's not even three years old, if I remember correctly.

And for $15 more, what does the Nexus player do that a Chromecast can't, and vice versa? I've finally gotten the itch to get the new Chromecast despite still not understand what its full capabilities are. We don't have a Smart TV so no Netflix or other streaming apps built in. That's what I'm hoping to add on to the TV and use an iPad to stream stuff on the TV.
 

Casey

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Nexus Player does everything a Chromecast can and more. It has built in casting functionality, but it also gives you a user interface and runs it's own games and apps. I use mine literally every day.

Put Marshmallow on my N6 and N7, no probs. Might update the Player later.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Well, after looking into the Nexus Player, I think I might bite. It's still $50 in stores right now but I'm just worried about the price drop hinting at an update soon. Does Google plan on updating the NP this year? Some Googling found a few articles stating rumors but that was before the 5x and 6P were announced and they were hoping it would announced then.
 

Pittsey

Knock, Knock...
Staff member
You do this every time you buy something... lol

I don't think it'll be updated for a while. They've only just updated the chromecast.

It's not the best way to watch your media, but it's as good (if not better) than the Apple TV or Amazon Fire Tv
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
You do this every time you buy something... lol

I don't think it'll be updated for a while. They've only just updated the chromecast.

It's not the best way to watch your media, but it's as good (if not better) than the Apple TV or Amazon Fire Tv
Do what? Ask if it's going to be updated? Google is pretty erratic with some of its updates and it's not something that can be approximated like Apple's releases, like the MacRumors release/purchase guide.

I think I'll go for it. It's going to be big for my parents with Spotify to play around the house. My mom started watching a few Hindi movies on Netflix so that's good too. And for me it'll be good to see The Wire and GoT on the big screen with HBO Now and Showtime.

If anyone in the US is looking for it, it's $50 at Best Buy and Walmart and I'm sure other places will price match.
 

Casey

Well-Known Member
Staff member
$50 is a fucking bargain.

I paid £75, which works out to $115. To be fair, Google gave me something like £30 in shopping vouchers for doing an insiders survey about a future product so really I only spent £45, but still, I would have been happy paying the full price. I get more than enough usage out of it.

I don't have the Gamepad though, I may get one for it.

The Marshmallow OTA hasn't hit yet for it on my unit, but I may sideload it later.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
$50 is a fucking bargain.

I paid £75, which works out to $115. To be fair, Google gave me something like £30 in shopping vouchers for doing an insiders survey about a future product so really I only spent £45, but still, I would have been happy paying the full price. I get more than enough usage out of it.

I don't have the Gamepad though, I may get one for it.

The Marshmallow OTA hasn't hit yet for it on my unit, but I may sideload it later.
Some forums mentioned something about WiFi dropping. The Player will be about 20 feet and floor up from our router, i.e about 25 Mbps vs the 30+ we would get directly next to it. Is the WiFi drop issue more of a software thing and happen regardless of distance, or is it just that?

Also I read no browser support (Chrome or anything else). Does sideloading fix that or is it really locked down and off the system?
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Got a Nexus 5X yesterday for my girl. Great phone.

My 6 is running like a dream on Marshmallow as well.
Just got the Nexus Player today. It went for $25 on clearance at Target so I ran and was told I got the last one.

After looking at the app compatibility (or lack of) I feel like I bought an Apple TV instead. Sideloading apps isn't a big deal but damn, that's how I get apps for this thing? The store only takes apps built for Android TV, which is essentially none. No HBO Now, Spotify. It came with Netflix and Hulu, which is nice, but still...

I looked up a tutorial for sideloading and I'll need ES Manager, or something like that, to do it all. Really wish Android would just let us download whatever and just put a disclaimer that the app is not optimized for TV and to not give low ratings if it doesn't work. But at least give me the option to run a potentially-broken app and if it doesn't suit my needs, I'll uninstall it.

Instead, people on forums are content with saying "blame the devs for not developing for ATV, not Google" which I understand but Google isn't intent on getting TV off the ground? Because so far it fucking sucks.

It was cheaper than a Chromecast by $10, so that's a huge plus, but considering my iPad pretty much stays in my room, it sucks to have to carry that downstairs and control a media center with it.

Maybe the features get better with root or installing some more stuff. I know there's Kodi which everyone is talking about, the renamed XBMC, I believe. But I think that still requires my laptop to be on in order to access the files off of it to stream on to the Player.

But for whatever is working, it works well. I was finishing up some stuff on YouTube I hadn't seen in a while. "How to Speak Australians" is some of the funniest shit I've ever seen. That whole channel/series is great and it played well on the Player.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Yeah, officially got pissed with this system today. Had some odd jittering issues in the YouTube app UI. Voice control is like trying to speak to a non-English speaker as it fucks everything up.

I remember laughing at the Nexus Q for being such a shitty product. Still bought this. Although it has worked fine for Casting and the Netflix and Hulu app work fine. The HBO Now app being absent for Android TV is appalling. I figured it'd be next in line after Netflix and Hulu in terms of popularity. On top of that, the Now app won't even Cast from my iPad, whereas other apps on it do.

Still, it was cheaper than the latest Chromecast so even just for casting, it's been a great, more powerful, cheaper alternative. But I tried sideloading apps using the ES Managerand it fucking sucked. My Mac could connect to the Player as a server but wouldn't let me drop the apks to sideload on to it. The bluetooth connection on my phone also continued to time out as well, as it transferred at a blazing fast 82 kb/s. For 50 MB apks.

Fucking ridiculous. I'm Apple TV has its drawbacks but I'm sure users can install apps that are actually optimized for TV and Apple isn't sitting on their nuts about bug fixes.

Fuck this thing.
 

Pittsey

Knock, Knock...
Staff member
Anyone who wants the best TV setup wants an IPTV system with VOD. Anything else is no match. Apple TV is shit, unless you get KODI on it. Anything google puts out is pants. Yes you can stream netflix, youtube and cast to it. But you can do that to most set top boxes, what makes it stand out...!
 

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