Technology Android

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Plus most of your texting can be done using apps like Whatsapp and still using just data.

The minutes, however, count when people call you or you call them. They aren't just incoming minutes.
 

ARon

Well-Known Member
To answer your earlier question I'd wait til the new stuff comes out. The s3 one x etc are all at the end of an era so to say. It's not just new phones but new entire chipsets that are around the corner. They're built different, smaller, more efficient and vastly superior speed wise. The s4 is a glimpse of that but that is all. I've been sitting on my upgrade for 4 months now. It's not bothering me one bit
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
To answer your earlier question I'd wait til the new stuff comes out. The s3 one x etc are all at the end of an era so to say. It's not just new phones but new entire chipsets that are around the corner. They're built different, smaller, more efficient and vastly superior speed wise. The s4 is a glimpse of that but that is all. I've been sitting on my upgrade for 4 months now. It's not bothering me one bit
I don't know what phone you have now, but I'm going to either be rocking my 2009 BB Bold or my OG Droid on VZW if I don't get a phone now. It's been too long since I've had a proper phone that was up to the mark with the phones of the current generation. Actually, I never did. The Droid Eris was already the runt when I got it in November of 2009 and when I finally got my OG Droid, it was the Summer of 2010 when the DInc, EVO, and Nexus One were already out.

I don't think I can wait much longer. Familiar words for when I was about to get the DEris, and the Nexus One came out. But I wasn't going to be switching carriers then, so it didn't matter.

If it's the end of an era of phones, I'm still not seeing the next crop of them showing up, even under rumored devices.
 

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I doubt there's anything coming soon that's going to be significantly better than the Galaxy S3 or HTC One X.

We're looking for October-December for the new Iphone and perhaps a new Nexus Device (they've been about as good as a Galaxy model released prior to them).
New flagships will be out next year. To me that's plenty of time to sit on a 3 year old phone. I'd switch now.

I think the best we'll see are those quad core S4 chipsets with Adreno 320. That's going to whoop SGS3's ass but there's at least a few months untill we'll see the first phone rocking that chip. From that point it wouldn't be far for next year's flagships running A15 which is expected to be ~20-30% faster per clock than S4 (but they're still struggling with energy efficiency) etc. etc.
Getting a SGS3 or HTC One X now will be like getting the SGS2 a year ago - there's hardly going to be anything much better any soon and you'll have a phone which will be good enough to do everything you will want it to do until your next replacement.
That said, the SGS3 is slightly more future-proof imho but I have a feeling that you might like the One X better - it might feel more 'solid' to you, and packs a great LCD (granted you prefer those over AMOLEDs).
 

THEV1LL4N

Well-Known Member
Good EDGE is 5 times as fast as GPRS (the old school 2G). 3G (UMTS) is merely twice as fast as EDGE. HSDPA is like at least 5 times as fast as EDGE though.

Typically the speeds you'd get are:
GPRS: 35 kbps
EDGE: 100-150 kbps (though technically 300kbps is reachable for EDGE but there aren't many carriers offering those speeds)
UMTS: 250 kbps
HSDPA: 600 kbps up to shitloads (like, 42 megabit per second) depending on your carrier.

Personally I don't download huge amounts of data on my phone. Opera compresses the shit out of everything so it downloads most websites in a few seconds on EDGE. I'm fine with that. Especially since I have preloaded maps on my phone, so with Google maps I'm only downloading information about places. Heck, with good EDGE I can even hold a voice chat on Skype perfectly fine.

I download app updates and upload to Dropbox while on Wi-fi.

edit: To me the perfect solution will be EDGE Evolution, or Evolved EDGE. It'll provide 500kbps-1mbps speeds while saving the battery life like EDGE does while offering decent speeds.
So when I'm on 2G, i'm on GPRS? It's too slow. I have the Power Control widget that came with CyanogenMod 7 and have set it to toggle between 2G and 3G whenever I want. The options I have are as follows:

2G/3G+2G
2G/3G Only
2G/3G Only/3G+2G

What would you recommend?

Is 3G+2G meant to represent HSDPA?
 

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
So when I'm on 2G, i'm on GPRS? It's too slow. I have the Power Control widget that came with CyanogenMod 7 and have set it to toggle between 2G and 3G whenever I want. The options I have are as follows:

2G/3G+2G
2G/3G Only
2G/3G Only/3G+2G

What would you recommend?

Is 3G+2G meant to represent HSDPA?
2G is GPRS or EDGE depending on your carrier and the station you're connected to (whether they support EDGE). If it's available it'll use EDGE, if not it'll use the old school GPRS.

3G is either UMTS or HSDPA depending on same things as above - if it's possible to use HSDPA your phone will use it automatically, if not it'll switch to slower UMTS/3G.

3G/2G setting means basically using HSDPA/3G if available. If it's not available or 3G reception is poor EDGE/2G will kick in.

It's important to remember that 2G reception is usually far better than 3G and 3G uses much more energy, it uses even more when it's struggling to find 3G signal or switches between 2G and 3G often. Also switching between 3G and 2G might result in dropped calls.

2G is almost always better for calls since reception is better and it's also better for battery. 3G is better for data speeds only, especially when it uses the HSDPA protocol.
What I do is this - Most of the time I'm on 2G , when I need fast data transfer I switch to 2G/3G and when I'm done I switch back to 2G. That's why the switch is there actually. 3G is inefficient in stand by and inefficient (and more risky) for phone calls.

Take a look at this while also analyzing the battery drain in different phases when the 2G/3G mode is on:


1. Standby on 3G, 50mA

2. Call is set up on 3G, current drain increases to approx. 220mA

3. Screen dims, current drain falls to 200mA

4. Radio conditions start to deteriorate (3G)

5. Switch to 2G while maintaining the phone call in tact, current drain goes down to 80mA (which as a matter of fact is closer to 3G on stand by)

Between 4. and 5. you run the risk of dropping the call. If you'd used the "3g only" switch the call would have dropped at the end of 4. and you'd have no reception. If you were on "2G only" the whole phone call would be like 5. with no issues whatsoverer and far lower energy drain.
 

Pittsey

Knock, Knock...
Staff member
Are people's battery life so poor that they settle for piss poor data speeds? I am on HSDPA all day long. My battery on my S3 lasted 2 days. And so does the battery on the HTC sensation I am currently using, and I'm a medium user.
 

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Personally I don't really need 3G speeds for data often and like I said, when I do I'm on wifi. With 2G I could survive for 3 days without a charger in the backwoods, I can go out for more than 24hours without worrying or do more with my phone during the day.

To me I need to squeeze more out of the battery more often than I do need faster data and 3G to 2G makes a major difference.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Are people's battery life so poor that they settle for piss poor data speeds? I am on HSDPA all day long. My battery on my S3 lasted 2 days. And so does the battery on the HTC sensation I am currently using, and I'm a medium user.
You're in London though, right? I imagine signal wouldn't be much of an issue there, even with all the buildings.

But being in the suburbs just outside a city, like me, it may be a bit different. Not to mention having a house in a wooded area. I don't think my phones lat more than 18 hours with medium use.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Coonie, there's also the LG 4X you might want to check out:
http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_optimus_4x_hd_p880_review-review-780.php
http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_optimus_4x_hd_p880-4563.php

It should be cheaper than its HTC and Samsung counterparts and it's not bad, it's LGs brand new flagship.
It doesn't have a US release date listed on Wiki. I think I'm going to end up staying with Sprint with my parents, so if it comes out for Sprint, I'll give it a look. A friend of mine has the G2X for TMo and he liked it. But I think this is the era of Sprint, HTC, and Apple competing with each other for the high-end market and I may just stick to one those.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
Personally I don't really need 3G speeds for data often and like I said, when I do I'm on wifi. With 2G I could survive for 3 days without a charger in the backwoods, I can go out for more than 24hours without worrying or do more with my phone during the day.

To me I need to squeeze more out of the battery more often than I do need faster data and 3G to 2G makes a major difference.
I was under the assumption that 2G was another name for EDGE. On the island, all we get is EDGE. And it fucks my battery up.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
I doubt there's anything coming soon that's going to be significantly better than the Galaxy S3 or HTC One X.

We're looking for October-December for the new Iphone and perhaps a new Nexus Device (they've been about as good as a Galaxy model released prior to them).
New flagships will be out next year. To me that's plenty of time to sit on a 3 year old phone. I'd switch now.

I think the best we'll see are those quad core S4 chipsets with Adreno 320. That's going to whoop SGS3's ass but there's at least a few months untill we'll see the first phone rocking that chip. From that point it wouldn't be far for next year's flagships running A15 which is expected to be ~20-30% faster per clock than S4 (but they're still struggling with energy efficiency) etc. etc.
Getting a SGS3 or HTC One X now will be like getting the SGS2 a year ago - there's hardly going to be anything much better any soon and you'll have a phone which will be good enough to do everything you will want it to do until your next replacement.
That said, the SGS3 is slightly more future-proof imho but I have a feeling that you might like the One X better - it might feel more 'solid' to you, and packs a great LCD (granted you prefer those over AMOLEDs).
I have no issues with screens. I just want the images to look crisp and clear. I'll bring the iPhone up again, and I know why the Retina display works on such a small screen size, but I love the "HD" look of the screen and whatever is on it. I 'haven't looked at many other phones since then and have comparison to draw it to, but I remember my mom's GNex and how the colors looked a bit faded and dim. I didn't like that, but I can deal with that if the performance is competition-shattering.

A friend of mine who is a huge iPhone user told me until Android caught up to Apple in terms of hardware, he would only consider Android, but most likely go with the iPhone. He said CPU power was much better on Android handsets, but that GPU was still a factor for him and that the 4S had the superior GPU performance. Why would that be a factor, unless you played a ton of games?
 

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I was under the assumption that 2G was another name for EDGE. On the island, all we get is EDGE. And it fucks my battery up.
There's a lot of confusion in Android. EDGE is technically 2,75G. However if you have that 2G/3G switcher app 2G is for both GPRS and EDGE, because in reality EDGE is GPRS over a few channels simultaneously.

If it comes to the Galaxy S3 and HTC One X both have pixel densities similar to the Iphone 4/4S.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
There's a lot of confusion in Android. EDGE is technically 2,75G. However if you have that 2G/3G switcher app 2G is for both GPRS and EDGE, because in reality EDGE is GPRS over a few channels simultaneously.

If it comes to the Galaxy S3 and HTC One X both have pixel densities similar to the Iphone 4/4S.
I'll take a look at the screens in person, but no phone I've used looked the same as the 4S. Or just the Retina display as a whole. I do, however, hope that it's true, that Android manufacturers have finally caught in pixel density, and surpassed Apple in implementing it onto a bigger screen.
 

ARon

Well-Known Member
I think the s3 and the galaxy nexus have ppi's of 306 and 316 and the iphone 4s is like 326 or something. I mean it's hardly different at all. The one x is around 310 as well. Hold the phone a centimeter further away and you have your retina display, on a bigger screen
 

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
The density is really super huge already. You have the resolution of a flat screen tv on your 4,7 inch screen.

I think the One X has a even better LCD than the Iphone. It's not only bigger but also great for an LCD.
I'm a fan of Amoleds though so to me the displays on the Galaxy Nexus and the SGS3 are currently best.
 

dilla

Trumpfan17 aka Coonie aka Dilla aka Tennis Dog
The density is really super huge already. You have the resolution of a flat screen tv on your 4,7 inch screen.

I think the One X has a even better LCD than the Iphone. It's not only bigger but also great for an LCD.
I'm a fan of Amoleds though so to me the displays on the Galaxy Nexus and the SGS3 are currently best.
How has AMOLED technology changed since the S1?
 

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