Technology Android

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
With 4G, did we ever hit "true" 4G speeds?
Theoretical max speeds are not reachable under typical deployments. To achieve those you'd need a sole device connected to a single tower next to it, and with 100% prioritized network traffic. They only do that for the tests before they launch a given tower.

LTE-Advanced, which is the modern standard for 4G has a theoretical speed of up to 1Gb/s and typically reaches 200-220Mb/s in large cities (some carriers realistically reach ~500Mb/s), which I think is way, way more than enough for a smartphone. Even at 200Mb/s, you're burning through 1GB of data in ~35 seconds, or about one run of Speedtest.

As a matter of fact, I purposefully cap my DL speeds at 5Mb/s so I don't run out of my 5GB of monthly data by things like Youtube deciding I'm good to stream at 4K when on the move. I honestly can't tell a difference 99% of the time as most websites or messengers typically won't send data faster than that.

Best Buy now has the TLC 65" R615 for $499. What a steal.
That's probably the best deal on any TV ever. Whoever buys this is sure to be very impressed with what they get for that price, to say the least.
 
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dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Theoretical max speeds are not reachable under typical deployments. To achieve those you'd need a sole device connected to a single tower next to it, and with 100% prioritized network traffic. They only do that for the tests before they launch a given tower.

LTE-Advanced, which is the modern standard for 4G has a theoretical speed of up to 1Gb/s and typically reaches 200-220Mb/s in large cities (some carriers realistically reach ~500Mb/s), which I think is way, way more than enough for a smartphone. Even at 200Mb/s, you're burning through 1GB of data in ~35 seconds, or about one run of Speedtest.

As a matter of fact, I purposefully cap my DL speeds at 5Mb/s so I don't run out of my 5GB of monthly data by things like Youtube deciding I'm good to stream at 4K when on the move. I honestly can't tell a difference 99% of the time as most websites or messengers typically won't send data faster than that.



That's probably the best deal on any TV ever. Whoever buys this is sure to be very impressed with what they get for that price, to say the least.

That's what I see when people post their speed test results. I'm on the Sprint sub and it's one of two kinds of speed test reports. Someone getting something like 1.2 Mbps and complaining or someone getting triple digit speedtests, 200+ Mbps. Not sure on their location as they don't always share but do give a general area or city.

I agree on the speeds. I think latency is a bigger issue for a carrier. If I'm not mistaken, that can affect how long it takes for a page to simply appear on your screen. You can have 100 Mbps but if it's high latency, you stare at a white screen when a page is loading for a lot longer. At least that's my understanding of it. And you don't need 100+ Mbps to load a simple website, like SH.

I have unlimited data so it's not an issue if my speeds are "too fast" and that triggers a site to stream in 1080p or better. I know I have YouTube (Vanced) set to "Auto" so sometimes I get 1080p and sometimes I get 480. It probably depends on traffic/congestion on my local tower since I don't stream video out of the house or at work and really just use it at home to watch something while I unwind. Occasionally, I will get an MKBHD video to stream in 4K, I think, or just something higher than 1080p, but I don't really notice a difference. Not on a "tiny" phone screen as opposed to on my MBP or a high end monitor but that's OK.

About the TV, I'm glad you mentioned and explained TCL to me. I looked a bit deeper in to their reputation and Rtings speak highly of it. It looks like the LCD TV to get if one isn't going the OLED route. And I've seen the 70-80" TVs still go for under $2500, or less. I think I was looking at the 8 series TVs. I don't know what the difference between the series are since it doesn't look to be based on the screen size. So maybe by release year?

Samsung's QLED looks like a halfway point between LCD and OLED but the pricing is still closer to an OLED, from my research. TCL makes QLED too now, I think?

Also, when comparing OLED to LCD/LED, is LED or LCD the correct term to use? I know they count as both but using them interchangeably feels weird.
 

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Samsung's QLED looks like a halfway point between LCD and OLED but the pricing is still closer to an OLED, from my research. TCL makes QLED too now, I think?

Also, when comparing OLED to LCD/LED, is LED or LCD the correct term to use? I know they count as both but using them interchangeably feels weird.
QLED and LED are just marketing names for LCDs. Literally LED refers to the backlight type, which is stupid as there are hardly any LCDs that aren't backlit by LEDs.

TCL's latest models are QLED as well, just as Samsungs. QLED is just an LCD with an improved different color filter though - there aren't groundbreaking differences. Personally speaking the biggest revolution in LCD image quality imho was FALD and HDR which pushed manufacturers to create TVs to a higher spec leading to better image quality.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
I got curious about our current TV and looked through some of the support links on the Sharp site. lol we never updated the firmware. I don't know what the firmware improvements included back in 2009 or 2010, but apparently there were two of them.

I'll put them on a flash drive and see what it does.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Either Google has gone sane and realized its Pixels are overpriced, as are most phones, or the Pixels are not selling well.

The 3a is $280 and the 3a XL is $360. I don't think you'd find an S9 or Note 9 for anything under $500. To find Google's budget phone from last generation at this price is weird.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Blind camera test by MKBHD:


Results:
Interesting to see. I haven't gone on vacation somewhere since getting my S10+ so I haven't had the opportunity to really see what this thing can do in proper lighting and of an object that's worth taking a picture of. But I guess it's good?
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Oh and I got Android 10 today. The public version, not the beta or anything.

Expect complaints about features taken out lol. And the requisite decrease in battery life from Samsung's "planned obsolescence."
 

Cooper

Well-Known Member
Either Google has gone sane and realized its Pixels are overpriced, as are most phones, or the Pixels are not selling well.

The 3a is $280 and the 3a XL is $360. I don't think you'd find an S9 or Note 9 for anything under $500. To find Google's budget phone from last generation at this price is weird.
3a is still £399 here which sucks
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Android 10 is nothing special. After a reboot after installing the OTA, I had to check the firmware version in the Phone Information section to make sure it didn't flash just the December security patch. It looks basically the same.

Maybe I haven't played around with it enough but how much do you need to play with a major OS update before you see a difference?

Many shared the same sentiment as me that updates since Lollipop have largely been the same. Nothing of note.

Has the industry given up on AR or is it still growing and developing? I actually used an app to measure several rooms I didn't know the dimensions of. It actually ended up being pretty accurate when I did eventually get a hold of the building plans and was off by a few inches only.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
OK, one feature I loved on iOS that finally made it over to Android seems to have come in Android 10 and that's the ability to allow a certain permission only when an app is opened, such as microphone or location. I don't mind apps having my location but I only usually want it when the app is open, such as a deals app I use that scans nearby businesses to see if there's a deal going on. I'd rather it not be on when I'm not using the app and instead streaming a video and have no intention of looking for a deal at the time lol

So that's nice and I'll go through what apps have what permissions and I will probably end up enabling some more with the stipulation that it only be active when the app is open. I wonder what "open" means, though. If an app that receives push notifications wakes the phone, is it "open" then? Because it might still be an app I want having mic and location data only when I open it manually and not when it is simply open in the background or even in the cache. I'm sure it's an obvious answer but app devs/companies can be devious about it and still exploit the loophole, if it exists.

Also, this thread is like 11+ years old, I think? Have you guys gone through any of the posts from over three years ago? I started reading from page one and got a few pages in and was comparing what Android was back then and what questions we had about the OS then versus now. What features we thought were amazing back then but are now features we don't even think about a phone not having today.

It pretty much chronicles my entry in to Android in November of 2009 when I got my Droid Eris (Hero) and then was wondering if I should have gone the Moto Droid route instead. Eventually, I fucked the phone up by updating to Eclair or Froyo (can't remember but I think it was 2.1 or 2.2) and all Eris' were plagued by an audio bug that would disable the speaker so the phone would get a call but not ring and you couldn't hear the other person but they could hear you until you restarted the phone. And Verizon was about to send me the new Moto at that point, which I think was the Devour, and I asked for the OG Droid and that's what they sent me. lol good times.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
https://www.androidcentral.com/best-decade-samsung-galaxy-s7

I feel like the same was said about the S3 for Samsung. That it was the phone that really put Samsung on the map and maybe was the best selling Galaxy device up until that point. I loved my S3 and S7 and thought they were well designed and performed well. I am starting to think I had a defective battery from factory that cause it to lose 30+% of its design capacity within 9 months of ownership, but despite that it was a good phone that I used for over 3 years.

https://www.androidauthority.com/buy-a-pixel-if-you-want-timely-updates-oh-wait-1068303/

Are some Pixel devices still stuck on October security patches? I really don't pay attention or fret over the "monthly" security patches that people obsess over not getting but it's odd to read about it happening to Pixel devices. Seems a bit sensationalized?
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Anyone getting any good tech for the holidays? i think my family's tech needs are maxed out for the year. within about 18 months, we went from a pretty-much dumb home to a proper smart home. The biggest thing for my parents was security and they got that with the Ring security system and the Blink camera, though the latter has proven to be a bit dinky for live views of the house.

For my space, I got the lights and the smart speakers, which is really all I needed. I let my parents deal with the Echo Show and Alexa lol. It seemed nice at first but Alexa is pretty dumb as Casey said and contrary to my initial impressions. Seeing the front door on the screen is a big deal for my parents but I'm not around to see if they use it and how often. They definitely use their phones when the doorbell rings to see who it is/was and they find that to be more convenient. The screen is too small to enjoy watching Amazon Prime Video on it (5") otherwise I would have taken it for myself to use it as a small screen on my desk to watch The Grand Tour, or something, while I did some work.

Last nagging issue is a mesh network for the clinic. It doesn't make sense to get a kit that doesn't support ethernet backhaul since the clinic has an ethernet port in each room, whereas our house doesn't. I don't know many homes that do have ethernet ports scattered about the place but maybe it's something in newer homes. So the mesh network is still a nagging issue because coverage can be spotty and techs complain about sometimes losing connectivity while moving about. I'm thinking about just doing the unthinkable and getting Best Buy's Geek Squad to come out and install a network that they think will work best. One time, one rep suggested a Ubiquiti hardware setup and that seemed way too elaborate but I'm not sure how to go about setting one up myself, properly, with the more consumer-oriented ones like Linksys, Eero, or Orbi. Only one of them has ethernet backhaul and I've already forgotten which one it is.

CES is two weeks away. Maybe that will bring about some price drops in TVs and other tech that help make purchases an easier decision.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
You hear about the Google Recorder app that got leaked, or whatever, from the Pixel?

Have it a shot and it works pretty well for the transcribing part. I don't have a use for it but it was accurate and I suggested it to my sister to record her lectures, since the transcript is searchable. But she has an iPhone so, lol
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Went and saw some TVs at BB today. First time in probably over a decade that I went in to that TV section at my local store, just to look at the differences between OLED and QLED and regular LED TVs. I'm sure there's some marketing gimmick going on at these stores because each manufacturer had different videos playing so it was had to tell where one excelled and where it fell short. Of course Sony and LG had very dark animations playing to show off the OLEDs whereas the the regular 4Ks were playing other, random stuff.

We'll see what CES brings out next week and hopefully see a price drop just before the Super Bowl.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Galaxy Fold 2: https://bgr.com/2020/01/06/galaxy-f...com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow

So are fold-able phones the future or are they going to be a gimmick, like curved TV screens were?

Also, I came across a random deal that was tweeted and on my timeline for the Xperia 1 but it came with both wireless NC Sony headphones and earbuds: https://www.focuscamera.com/sony-xp...ct&utm_campaign=Focus Camera Logo (2)&irgwc=1

I don't have any experience with Sony phones so I'm not sure how good the pricing is but it seems pretty decent if you're getting about $500 worth of headphones plus a phone for this price. The phone ends up being about $450.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Just got the January update for my S10+. That was fast. Usually it comes at the end of the month, at the earliest, or even a month or two later.

As someone who doesn't really care about getting every security patch out there, on time, etc., that's pretty surprising. Samsung stepping their game up or just a fluke incident and we won't see February's until May? lol
 

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