Database Develop

Pentile screen

I am seeing a lot of reviews on various blogs putting down the Pentile screen that the Droid 3 has. However I have also seen many comments stating that the claims of distortion and pixilation are over exaggerated and only visible under magnification.
Since I trust XDA more than some random blogs I would like to hear what owners are seeing with the screen. Is the screen good? Bad? Bad when put next to the current market but good for everyday use?
I am personally debating upgrading from the Droid 1 so I am curious as to how the two stack up next to each other.

I played w a friends D3 today. U should upgarde. U wont be disappointed in any way at all.

stkiswr said:
I played w a friends D3 today. U should upgarde. U wont be disappointed in any way at all.
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+1. i'm coming over from the DInc's Amoled screen and I am very happy with the D3's. it looks great.

calash said:
I am seeing a lot of reviews on various blogs putting down the Pentile screen that the Droid 3 has. However I have also seen many comments stating that the claims of distortion and pixilation are over exaggerated and only visible under magnification.
Since I trust XDA more than some random blogs I would like to hear what owners are seeing with the screen. Is the screen good? Bad? Bad when put next to the current market but good for everyday use?
I am personally debating upgrading from the Droid 1 so I am curious as to how the two stack up next to each other.
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Click to collapse
It will be in Verizon stores and Bestbuy on thursday so you can see for yourself. One benefit you wont get to try is that it is outstanding in direct sunlight so you will have to take everyones word on that.
To those who have it, when you say it is great in direct sunlight, is that with the brightness all the way up or is it visible even at low brightness?

reviews.
I too am concerned about the droid 3s screen. From what Ive read the pentile screens here here and here, it has trouble aliasing text, certain pictures show off more of a grid-like pattern in the pentile and diagonal lines sometimes look "craggy". FYI I found the last link pretty illuminating regarding the limits of a pentile screen. There's also always wikipedia.
Whether or not these effects are as exaggerated as some people claim, I'm not sure. I'm eager to hold one of these in hands to judge for myself. Considering I use my droid to read a great deal, I'm most interested in the aliasing of text.
My assumption is that while some of these reports of effects have merit, they are extreme cases and not completely indicative of Pentiles performance the majority of the time.

Lol I'm not sure what other people are telling you but I am sure the screen is clearer than the Droid one. Lol don't be so picky. I understand u love your d1 but the D3 IS leaps and bounds better in every way. Its s shame no 4g and 512ram but very nice phone.

I have the D3, and I upgraded from the D1.
I can say that under normal usage, the screen performs beautifully. I have mine set around 30% brightness (not automatic) and I can see pretty well in direct sunlight. Under some really bright sunlight, lighter colors do become a little more difficult to see.
I was skeptical of the pentile display originally as well, after seeing my girlfriend's AMOLED screen, but I am definitely happy about how it actually looks and performs.

It might just be me, but I think the D3's screen looks better than the DX2's PenTile, which I didn't like when I saw it. Wondering if they might be slightly different models.
I upgraded from a Droid 1, very happy. NinjaBlur's also not bad, actually.

That is great info, thank you all
My other concerns are minor and mostly the usual crop of "Bootloader" and "No LTE". At this point I am fairly sure I can live without both.
The memory is not an issue to me as I can do a ton with the D1 and run into few issues. Give me double and I will be good for a few years to come.

LTE kills your battery life though. Yeah, I want it, but 90% of the time I'm using my phone, I'm somewhere with Wi-Fi anyhow.

stkiswr said:
Lol I'm not sure what other people are telling you but I am sure the screen is clearer than the Droid one. Lol don't be so picky. I understand u love your d1 but the D3 IS leaps and bounds better in every way. Its s shame no 4g and 512ram but very nice phone.
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Are you saying you've handled the D3? Or have you done any research? Or are you simply stating that newer equals better?
Sent from my Droid using XDA Premium App

straylight said:
Are you saying you've handled the D3? Or have you done any research? Or are you simply stating that newer equals better?
Sent from my Droid using XDA Premium App
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Owned a heavily modded d1. Used a d3 today. It is a superior phone. I am not trying to sound arrogant. It just is. If u aren't concerned about 4g or unlocked bootloader then you may really like it. It was noce while I used it.

I got my D3 last Friday, and the screen looks great to me. I have had the DInc, DX2, ThunderBolt and Droid Charge. I knew what a 4" pentile screen looked like before I got it since I checked out the Atrix.
Now sure if I take out my 10x magnifying lens you can see the pixels, but who the hell is reading the display with a 10x magnifying lens? A blogger looking for traffic.

RaptorMD said:
I got my D3 last Friday, and the screen looks great to me.....
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Ha, honestly all I really wanted was some testimony from some people who've handled and or bought the D3. You guys have given me just that. Thanks!

I think the screen really nice. Better than the tbolt which I what I have until my d3 arrived. Take it from someone who works for vzw, its a very nice display.
Sent from my HTC Flyer P512 using Tapatalk

Had my D3 since yesterday (Monday) morning. IMO, quite honestly, the pentile screen is not a quality screen when it comes to visual fidelity. It is noticeably duller, and if you care about things such as pixelation, it may bug you. It does not bug me - as long as I hold it at 8" or beyond, it looks crisp to my eyes.
Basically, it still looks *good*, just not mind-blowingly amazing. For example, for straight up clean edges and colours, I would choose my wife's WVGA DInc2.
However, the pentile has some pretty profound positives. One is that it is far less battery intensive than other techs, which is a good thing when you consider the D3 has fairly meaty hardware. Another plus is the visibility - it has something close to a 175 degree viewing angle and seems to suck in sunlight instead of bouncing it back at you. That has got to be worth something.
My two pennies.

Here's some side-by-side photos of my Droid 1 and Droid 3.
The screen is plenty fine.
(sorry for the poor pictures...they were snapped with an iPhone 3)

I owned a Droid X2 for a while and the PenTile screen was bad enough to notice regularly and be bothersome.
I now own the Droid 3 (pre-ordered 7/7 overnight and got it 7/8). The smaller screen makes the PenTile pixels much smaller than I'd hoped and it's barely noticeable. As picky as I am, I thought it still might bother me (but I just couldn't live without a keyboard) but it really doesn't at all. If I'm not looking for it, I forget it even has the PenTile screen.

PenTile Displays
Many of the concerns and misinformation about PenTile display technology are being addressed at PenTileBlog.com. If you have specific concerns we would also like to hear from you there.

My Droid X2 has a pentile screen, and i love it.

So I went to VZW to check it out (D2G owner)

Hi all,
I finally got a chance to go to the store to check one of these out. I wanted to see what all the hype was about and if I could justify spending the money to upgrade my D2G (not elligible for upgrade yet).
First Impressions:
- Screen: I read all the hysteria about how bad a pixelated screen looks etc. Some people said that you could barely see the difference unless youre holding the right up to your eye holes.. They are wrong. You can easily see the difference holding it at normal viewing distance. If you like the screen on the D2G it will take some serious adjusting to. It simply 'seems' like outdated tech and looks cheap.
-4G: This is the first 4G device I have ever used. It is shockingly quick (had 2 bars in Central NJ). I download a few apps (dolphin browser) and went to a couple of web pages. I also ran the speed test 19.6mb down // 3.99 upload. I went to youtube and loaded an HD video and the video never stuttered once (video time never caught up to buffering). I was very impressed with 4G and that is mainly the reason I wanted to take a look at the Droid Bionic.
- Stress testing:? Not sure what to call this but I wanted to see if I could make the phone hang up. Im not even sure if these are applicable to the hardware, but I ran 2 apps. The first of which was Google Maps, it didnt seem to be any faster than on my D2G. Scrolling isnt any more impressive neither is zooming in, I felt like the rendering speed was the same.
- Moto BLUR/UI whatever its called these days: Its still sucky you will want to root and change it.
I also downloaded a PDF and scrolled around that. Same issue, rendering doesnt seem any faster.
Im not even sure if something like this can be critiqued because these things arent even smooth on a regular PC.
Its clearly a good phone if you can deal with the screen thing. Once roms and stuff are developed for it, it will be even better. I would probably pull the trigger if i was elligible for an upgrade.
Just my 2 cents.

I personally wouldn't recommend the Bionic. I'm currently using one, as it "fell into my hands". There are many more options coming VERY soon which will have greater specs than the Bionic and won't have the terrible display.
I can't believe how much denial the people are in when they say that the screen is fine. If you say the screen is fine you're lying to yourself and everyone else, but whatever makes you feel better about your $300+ purchase I guess.
I will say that the Bionic has a leg up on my Incredible as far as outdoor viewing goes.

BerkleyJ said:
I personally wouldn't recommend the Bionic. I'm currently using one, as it "fell into my hands". There are many more options coming VERY soon which will have greater specs than the Bionic and won't have the terrible display.
I can't believe how much denial the people are in when they say that the screen is fine. If you say the screen is fine you're lying to yourself and everyone else, but whatever makes you feel better about your $300+ purchase I guess.
I will say that the Bionic has a leg up on my Incredible as far as outdoor viewing goes.
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Then I'm in denial and deny it! lol.. its not the best screen, but its not horrible! I think its quite ok.. the pixels don't bother me much, my battery life kicks butt compared to tbolt! Then again, im not one for watching movies on my phone I got a Sammy LED at home for that...

For those of us who:
-would rather watch a movie on something larger than a 4 inch screen.
-would rather fap to pr0n from a pc
-would rather play games on a pc, xbox 360 or ps3
-care about performance of the best 4g radio and so far the best processor/ram combo
OR have a connection for incredibly good deals on phones and don't really care...
Yeah, denial is the right term.

Like i've been saying - Rendering performance will not be hardly any different until Icecream comes out. Gingerbread is singlethreaded.. you're not going to see the OS take any advantage over dual core for a while.
The good news is that it's still just as fast as any other single core phone. If any app is coded to take advantage of dual core, it will shine in those but in average usage - you're not seeing any performance advantage here.

The pentile screen doesn't bother me. I can tell at times but still doesn't impact me. I would rather have better battery life than a non-pentile screen. I don't want the Thunderbolt battery issues.
After removing a bunch of bloatware, I kinda dig the new Blur. I was using CM7 with ADW Ex on top. It is running so butter smooth! I will probably go back to ADW Ex when a ROM comes out without Blur.
I got 30 days to try it out but I might exchange it for the HTC Vigor. Depends on what happens the next 30 days.

Diversion said:
Like i've been saying - Rendering performance will not be hardly any different until Icecream comes out. Gingerbread is singlethreaded.. you're not going to see the OS take any advantage over dual core for a while.
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While it's true it's barely worth mentioning. "YET" or "UNTIL" are key vocabulary for this CPU.

Coming from a droidx here... the screen looks a-ok to me on the bionic.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium

I've been using htc phones since the ppc6600. Battery life has been terrible since then, and I don't see it getting any better, unless they do something magical. 6600:terrible battery life. 6700 terrible battery life. 6800: terrible battery life. Incredible : incredibly terrible battery life.
There seems to be a trend here. I do believe I am done with htc.
The battery life alone, to me, is worth the money.

No doubt that the screen is disappointing, but LTE is absolutely insane, and the phone is noticeably faster than the Sensation running a Sense ROM. Overall, I'm very pleased with my first Motorola device, and it was a steal at $179 from Amazon.
--
Sent from my Droid Bionic.

I think that people are being to anal about the screen. I use the phone in direct sunlight now and it looks incredible. The text looks super sharp and you dont have to put your hand on top of the screen to block sun light. this phone is amazing. and yes better phones will be out and when you get that awesome phone that will come out in a few months another better phone will be out after that. is a never ending cycle. I love the bionic and i dont regret buying it. When i want to watch porn I use my computer or my galaxy 10.1 tablet. If you really really need a porn fix the bionic could take care of it too.

86shelby said:
I've been using htc phones since the ppc6600. Battery life has been terrible since then, and I don't see it getting any better, unless they do something magical. 6600:terrible battery life. 6700 terrible battery life. 6800: terrible battery life. Incredible : incredibly terrible battery life.
There seems to be a trend here. I do believe I am done with htc.
The battery life alone, to me, is worth the money.
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It's Sense. Put CyanogenMod on any HTC device, and you get amazing battery life. Can't wait for it on the Bionic.
--
Sent from my Droid Bionic.

TheBiles said:
It's Sense. Put CyanogenMod on any HTC device, and you get amazing battery life. Can't wait for it on the Bionic.
--
Sent from my Droid Bionic.
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Sense didn't exist until after the 6800. I had cm7 on my DInc, it still sucked, battery wise anyway.

The hate for the screen is warranted, and not warranted. I don't know how to put that. I was adamantly against a PenTile screen and it was almost enough to put me off on this phone. I had seen it in store and focused on the screen, and it just annoyed me. Then I got some real time with it and it's seriously a bunch of nonsense. The screen is sharp, great colors, great in daylight. It's not AMOLED level there but it's a do-it-all screen.
The 4G is super fast, and the battery life is amazing. I came from a Droid X and it's an impressive phone. Suck it up on the screen and you'll forget about it in a day.

Vexorg said:
Hi all,
I finally got a chance to go to the store to check one of these out. I wanted to see what all the hype was about and if I could justify spending the money to upgrade my D2G (not elligible for upgrade yet).
First Impressions:
- Screen: I read all the hysteria about how bad a pixelated screen looks etc. Some people said that you could barely see the difference unless youre holding the right up to your eye holes.. They are wrong. You can easily see the difference holding it at normal viewing distance. If you like the screen on the D2G it will take some serious adjusting to. It simply 'seems' like outdated tech and looks cheap.
-4G: This is the first 4G device I have ever used. It is shockingly quick (had 2 bars in Central NJ). I download a few apps (dolphin browser) and went to a couple of web pages. I also ran the speed test 19.6mb down // 3.99 upload. I went to youtube and loaded an HD video and the video never stuttered once (video time never caught up to buffering). I was very impressed with 4G and that is mainly the reason I wanted to take a look at the Droid Bionic.
- Stress testing:? Not sure what to call this but I wanted to see if I could make the phone hang up. Im not even sure if these are applicable to the hardware, but I ran 2 apps. The first of which was Google Maps, it didnt seem to be any faster than on my D2G. Scrolling isnt any more impressive neither is zooming in, I felt like the rendering speed was the same.
- Moto BLUR/UI whatever its called these days: Its still sucky you will want to root and change it.
I also downloaded a PDF and scrolled around that. Same issue, rendering doesnt seem any faster.
Im not even sure if something like this can be critiqued because these things arent even smooth on a regular PC.
Its clearly a good phone if you can deal with the screen thing. Once roms and stuff are developed for it, it will be even better. I would probably pull the trigger if i was elligible for an upgrade.
Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your comparing a Droid 2 Global to a Bionic .... Bionic>"D2G"
---------- Post added at 04:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:54 AM ----------
The "VERY" part of your statement, stands out as if you know something the rest of "non" Verizon Wireless employee's would know... if you dont work for verizon wireless please share what these options are..if you do work for vzw i can understand if you dont because you dont want to get a lawsuit.

Thx for the detailed review while playing with a demo model in-store for how long?
*crack me up!

manolith2011 said:
I think that people are being to anal about the screen.
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If I'm spending $200 to $300 on an smartphone it better have a damn good screen. No offense but the Bionic does not have a good screen. Yeah at times it can look good but anything with green for instance suddenly brings out the crap factor. If it doesn't bother you then enjoy it. As for me I'll wait until either the HTC or Samsung offerings are out both of which will have a better screen over the Bionic.

Would you recommend the D3?.

Ok so right now am looking for a phone to buy.
And had the droid x
And droid charge.
So my question is would anybody recommend the d3?
And how is the development for the d3 look in the future?
I heard about motorola unlocking the bootloader but when the day comes, will they only provide it with the new phones? Or would it be like an update?

Absolutely would recommend!
I wholeheartedly recommend the D3 - especially if you are looking for a physical keyboard.
Development is well under way and there are now at least 2 full working ROMs. I've tried both Steel Droid and Monster and both are great - i find monster to be faster and thats my preference.
When I first got the phone, I was pretty bummed that the locked bootloader had put a huge damper on development. Ever since root has been acheived, however, things have been much better and you could not pry my D3 from my cold dead hands.
I hear that Blur is much better than previous iterations, but I use launcher pro so I don't use blur at all.
heres a link to the ROM, Mods and Themes thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1289611

As much as I like my D3, I would not recommend it to anyone looking to get a new phone. unless you absolutely need a keyboard, I would wait for either the Droid Razr or Galaxy Nexus. Both will have better hardware and FAR better screens and will be LTE.

I got a D3 yesterday, after having the D1 the last two years. After about 20 hours using it, I love it. I really dig how fast it is, and the larger screen is nice too.
As soon as I got it home, I rooted it and ran the scripts to remove the VZW apps. I really don't see a need to flash a ROM since this D3 runs so smoothly already. I'd like to edit some PNG files here and there, and that will probably be about it for me. I remember the constant flashing of ROM's, SBF files, and themes on my D1. This time around, I'm really not looking forward to that. It feels to me like VZW and Motorola did a great job with the device as is once you skim off the bloatware.
Like SrulDog, I switched to LP immediately. I've been using LP since about the time it was released, so I am very comfortable with it. It runs great on the D3 too.
I say go for it. I don't know how it compares to the Droids you have owned, but I know it is much better than the D1.
-Mike

kishin14 said:
As much as I like my D3, I would not recommend it to anyone looking to get a new phone. unless you absolutely need a keyboard, I would wait for either the Droid Razr or Galaxy Nexus. Both will have better hardware and FAR better screens and will be LTE.
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Sure the screen looks crap sometimes. But I'm standing in direct sunlight in 100 degree weather right now and I can see every detail on it. Try that on an AMOLED.
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium

I have had this phone for a couple weeks and I am enjoying it. I had an OG Droid that the screen crapped out on me so this was nice because it works! I am used to the hardware keyboard on a Blackberry Tour/Bold 9650 but that's personal preference. I am getting used to this one though and I can fly on it so I guess it's pretty good for a keyboard.
A couple things I have done are root, freeze a few apps like VCast and run Autokiller at Strict, and the phone is as smooth as butter now. It has the same hardware as the Bionic really so I mean it's as high end as you can get. If you want 4G then as mentioned you should wait, but I have been getting great 3G speeds and yes I have to wait for the Market apps to download a little but it's a lot faster than it has been in the past with my OG Droid.

Well 4g isent really a biggy for me.
More like.batterry life and great rom features really

Androidsims said:
Sure the screen looks crap sometimes. But I'm standing in direct sunlight in 100 degree weather right now and I can see every detail on it. Try that on an AMOLED.
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium
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+1
/droid3

Great responses here! This is why I love XDA! To answer the question…yes, I would definitely recommend getting a DVD for all the reasons given above. Dev work is going well, CM7 is on the way, and we MAY have an AOSP rom by the weekend (permissions to port pending). The physical keyboard is outstanding, and the screen is good. Even though colors are a bit washed out, being able to view the screen in direct sunlight, with no issues, is a massive bonus. If you don't need the keyboard, and can wait a little while, I would jump all over the Nexus Prime/ galaxy Nexus/ whatever they're calling that 4.65" piece of sexiness! Either way, you'll end up satisfied imo.
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium

The biggest bugger for me is the lack of RAM. Phone would have been a whole lot better if it had 1GB ram instead 512MB only. The screen is a letdown IMO, but indeed is great in the sun and also better on the battery.
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk

Aside from the occasional issues from being in Australia, I must say I recommend the Droid 3. It's excellent!

I still fail to see what the lack of ram is holding us back from. But I've already convinced pne person to buy this phone, and they text me damn near everyday to thank me.
sent from my MONSTERDroid3 from the XDA app

Two years ago the Milestone was an awesome terminal for its time.
Nice design, perfect size, one of the best display ever seen, incredibly good audio quality and decent CPU power.
The only drawbacks were the horrible battery life, the cheap keyboard and the crap camera.
The D3, although can't be considered a bad phone, is the shadow of what the MS1 was.
The performances (I mean the real ones, not the benchmarks) aren't on par with one years old phones, the crap camera and the poor battery life are still there, the keyboard is improved but is still built like a toy, while the phone grown more than the display, the display went from the best available to the worst ever seen, the signal sensitivity went from the top to the "below the average". The audio quality, while better than the HTC phones is not on par with the motorola ancestors.
As I already said, my Desire Z (aka G2) was a better phone in any area, excluding the audio level and the lack of the numeric ROW.
From my point of view was a boring phone, everything worked from the beginning, good battery life, great photos, super stable system, good keyboard, and fantastic tethering capabilities.
The display was also good, not as the one on the Milestone 1, but light years better than the Droid 3's one.
All in all I suggest to buy the D3 only if you can get a very good deal.
If you like a ready to go smartphone, a DZ/G2 is still a way better choice, especially considering its today average price.

gravenimage said:
I still fail to see what the lack of ram is holding us back from.
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x2.
i think people come from older phones and get hung up on the numbers when with a better processor and other amenities a 'low' RAM really isn't a factor and can actually make the phone faster with everything cached and saved to the system memory. I don't even check the RAM since i've never had an issue with slow or choppy speed.
Also i go a whole day with my phone and end with 30% battery at the end of the day. i use it heavy while im out, not as much when home from work but even then i come home with 50-40% battery. I'm not sure what you guys are doing to get poor battery life.

kern417 said:
x2.
I'm not sure what you guys are doing to get poor battery life.
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Usually just using it on modern networks.
The motorola basebands are usually poor (especially on the erly releases), and the power drain has a lot of variation depending on the generation and the make of the BTS/node-b, whatever.
Just for example when I got the milestone 1, with the initial firmware tha battery lasted less than six hour with a vodafone SIM, and almost a day with a three SIM.

The Solutor said:
Usually just using it on modern networks.
The motorola basebands are usually poor (especially on the erly releases), and the power drain has a lot of variation depending on the generation and the make of the BTS/node-b, whatever.
Just for example when I got the milestone 1, with the initial firmware tha battery lasted less than six hour with a vodafone SIM, and almost a day with a three SIM.
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Click to collapse
Idk I hear people on Verizon say the same thing and we get pretty good service just about everywhere. sure at my old job where I was tucked in the basement my phone would die quickly but I couldnt blame that on the phone or the software, like you said it's the radio trying to get signal. I think it more depends on the user and how they use the phone/what services they run.
I had installed Juice Defender originally because i thought it would increase battery life, but i turn my screen on and off so much that it actually drained more battery from turning data off and on all the time, so now i only use it to automatically enable wifi when i'm home and turn off data while i'm asleep. maybe something like that could help you out?
All in all I think the D3 is one of the best Android options out. Plus i'm petty and like the fact that not everyone around here has one since it didn't seem to get a bunch of publicity...people still ask me 'What phone is that???"

kern417 said:
I had installed Juice Defender originally because i thought it would increase battery life, but i turn my screen on and off so much that it actually drained more battery from turning data off and on all the time, so now i only use it to automatically enable wifi when i'm home and turn off data while i'm asleep. maybe something like that could help you out?
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When I bought the MS1 "wi sync plus" was the program that saved the ms1 form a jump out of the window.
Btw i never tried any wi sync+ clone, like juice defender.

I'm about to purchased D3 today. Too bad it's hard to find one here. Already ask the seller to check with the supplier if there is any. I only found Motorola Atrix at one single shop here.
This is definitely my choice right now. In my opinion, 512MB RAM is enough for a dual core 1 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 SoC processor. PowerVR SGX540 is just nice, too bad that it only support OpenGL 2.0 and not DirectX as in Playstation Vita with PowerVR SGX543.
QWERTY keyboard has improved a lot this time. It had HDMI Type-D, Physical Button for Camera & Sound Volume & Micro-USB. I really hope it will get ICS update when it release and capable of USB Host. Another thing is that Motorola had been bought by Google, I believe Motorola will have latest update every time new Android version released. I hope so
One thing that make me stay away from Samsung Galaxy S2 is that it had one single port Micro USB for everything(HDMI through MHL, USB data, USB Charging, USB Host)
If i use HDMI output, then I cannot use USB Host at the same time. I wonder if the USB Host adapter connected to USB Hub, can it handle and recognize multiple device such as keyboard, mouse,game controller,USB Pendrive etc?

Yeah, but the way I understand it, even the phones that have 1gb of RAM right now (Atrix, Bionic) dont really have 1gb because 512mb is locked to be used with Webtop. And so far as I have been able to find, no other phone has more than 512mb right now. Can anyone confirm?
This mattered to me because I have an Atrix right now on AT&T and I absolutely love the phone, but can't take the ****ty service everywhere anymore, have to switch to Verizon. I had basically three phones I was looking at in the Amazon penny sale, D3, Bionic and the new Samsung qwerty, Supernova or something. So, if the above is right, the D3 I'm getting is essentially the same phone as my Atrix now without Webtop (don't care) or 4g (not here for years, boucou wifi) but with a physical kb, which actually makes it way better. I actually really, really like Gingerblur, and if it's slow I dig Launcherpro, so I should be good, yeah?
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

This. Coming from an Atrix getting HDMI mirroring will be a big deal to me; I didn't buy any docks and haven't rooted or reflashed other than official 2.3 update, so the only thing I ever get over HDMI is the media player interface. Which is cool, but I want something else.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

Nexus 4 disappointment

I have to say that i opened my new nexus this morning with excitement. The build quality and style of the phone is great.
That being said as soon as i turned it on i was really disappointed with the screen quality. The colours look washed out like a cheap budget TV in a sun drenched room. Next to an S3 it cant even compare. Side by side comparison with an S3 leaves the nexus looking awful. I put phasebeam live wallpaper on both phones and there really isnt a challenge from the nexus. The blue corner on the nexus is nearly white the colours are so far off. I tried another live wallpaper called Magic Smoke 3D and the blue areas on the S3 are nearly white on the Nexus. Blacks are almost grey too its really poor. I know the OLED vs LCD debate but i think this is more an issue of a very good OLED vs a very poor LCD or at least very poorly calibrated LCD. The Auto brightness is so dim its also useless and i have to set it manually. Its so bad that its dimmer than my OLED which is insane.
Battery life is a real issue. i had nothing of note installed on the phone and went from 74% down to 0 in less than a half days use.
The loud speaker is tinny and sounds pretty bad and the ear speaker is sounding very odd compared to other phones i own.
Stock android has some nice points which i can appreciate but its lacking in other areas which arent easy to live with. No battery percent is a real stupid omission and i know you can mod the phone up but seriously not being able to dial a phone number directly from an email is pretty poor. took me a while to get the copy and paste working to do it.
Whilst a few things are Goolges fault i squarely lay the blame at LG since i saw the Optimus G and i thought the screen was terrible on that also and the other hardware issues are down to cost cutting and lack of care when it comes to colour calibration.
This phone is worth every penny at £280 and thats all its worth. Its nowhere near as good a deal as i believed before i got it in the post this morning. Its certainly not a £400-£500 Phone. Since LG is a screen company its a real shame they screwed this one up so bad.
Its going back to Google on monday and ill think ill wait for the S4.

Maybe try to calibrate it. Mine came out of the box looking good. After some calibration it is not far from the best screen I've used. Also in bright rooms and sun the screen rocks. Maybe you got unlucky?
Also I can get up to 6 hours of screen time usually around 4 though worth heavier use so I cannot relate to this at all
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

If you don't like it then just return it. This really isn't a difficult concept. However, for the price you paid you really can't argue about it.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Couldnt disagree more with the OP ,
but everyone's allowed an opinion .... I think the screen is fantastic and sharp, the S3 imo is oversaturated, and some professionals have said the colours are much truer to life than the S3s , and like @hewettBR said , you could calibrate it to pretty much do anything ya wanted ..
Im a little confused, did you not know what you were getting with stock android? its stock, bone, clean, if you dont like it maybe try a custom rom?
Also the battery life on my device has been fine, gets me through a days usage with 30% left and 3 hours of screen on time, no problem what so ever. also some custom kernels people have got 5-6 hours of screen on time
Just my 2 cents

italia0101 said:
Couldnt disagree more with the OP ,
but everyone's allowed an opinion .... I think the screen is fantastic and sharp, the S3 imo is oversaturated, and some professionals have said the colours are much truer to life than the S3s , and like @hewettBR said , you could calibrate it to pretty much do anything ya wanted ..
Im a little confused, did you not know what you were getting with stock android? its stock, bone, clean, if you dont like it maybe try a custom rom?
Also the battery life on my device has been fine, gets me through a days usage with 30% left and 3 hours of screen on time, no problem what so ever. also some custom kernels people have got 5-6 hours of screen on time
Just my 2 cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know about stock android but i never realised just how lacking stock android can be in areas. Whilst some complex stuff is included other simple stuff is missing. You really dont know whats missing until a feature that you might use every day on an S3 is just not there in Nexus. This isnt as much as a deal breaker as the screen though.
I really dont want true to life screen quality anyway. its a phone and not a window. I want the red green and blues to pop and amaze everytime i look. The contrast should be high and blacks should be dark. With my nexus i have Blue which is actually White! Black which is grey and washed out. I really think i must have a bad sample or maybe its because i have a comparison phone to put the screen against.

irzero said:
I know about stock android but i never realised just how lacking stock android can be in areas. Whilst some complex stuff is included other simple stuff is missing. You really dont know whats missing until a feature that you might use every day on an S3 is just not there in Nexus. This isnt as much as a deal breaker as the screen though.
I really dont want true to life screen quality anyway. its a phone and not a window. I want the red green and blues to pop and amaze everytime i look. The contrast should be high and blacks should be dark. With my nexus i have Blue which is actually White! Black which is grey and washed out. I really think i must have a bad sample or maybe its because i have a comparison phone to put the screen against.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fair enough, if thats how ya feel then thats how you feel

agree
italia0101 said:
Couldnt disagree more with the OP ,
but everyone's allowed an opinion .... I think the screen is fantastic and sharp, the S3 imo is oversaturated, and some professionals have said the colours are much truer to life than the S3s , and like @hewettBR said , you could calibrate it to pretty much do anything ya wanted ..
Im a little confused, did you not know what you were getting with stock android? its stock, bone, clean, if you dont like it maybe try a custom rom?
Also the battery life on my device has been fine, gets me through a days usage with 30% left and 3 hours of screen on time, no problem what so ever. also some custom kernels people have got 5-6 hours of screen on time
Just my 2 cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally agree with your answer, y asked a designer to choose which screen look better between the S3 and the Nexus 4, and she choose the nexus 4 because it has more realistic colors she said. I was a GSIII owner and I am not regreat about switching to the nexus 4.
Sorry about my english.

Just ordered mine last night. I too have an s3 right now.
I hope I'm not too disappointed.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

/Waaaaaaa
I mean really....

As someone who had an S3, went to a N4, then went back to an S3 I noticed the following things after going back to the S3:
The S3's screen is nowhere near as sharp as the Nexus 4's. I never thought the difference between pentile and non pentile was big, but it is. Text is far clearer. Colours between the two are preference. I like the pop of the S3s screen.
The S3 is a slow phone. The Nexus 4 craps on it for UI speed.
The Nexus is a beautiful device. It feels really nice in the hand and feels very high end.
The Nexus battery life is rubbish. I do not understand how people are getting 5 hours of on screen time - maybe they have everything turned off. I like to have wifi, gps, BT, 3g all turned on all the time and the Nexus 4 would barely get me through a day. The S3 easily does it and also has the option of spare battery. Also when gaming on the Nexus the battery goes down a % a minute at least. I played sworcery for 20 mins and my battery had gone from 80 to 50something%!
The Nexus 4 gets HOT during demanding gaming. Like, really hot. Changing the kernel fixed this - I don't know how.
I also missed the swipe left/right to call/message from touchwiz.
Stock android quick toggles, whilst looking really good aren't useful at all. All they do is take you to the settings menu.
I think that on screen buttons are far nicer and the back button being on the LEFT is the right place.
Forgot to add - The main reason I switched back was because of the Camera. It is ASS! Just take a look at the photo thread on these very forums for proof. Also lacks burst mode which is a bit annoying. It also took longer to render HDRs and they weren't that great. A lot of people think it's good because they came from a Galaxy Nexus , which had a mid 2010 5MP shooter in it.

I was a s3 user but I do like the nexus 4 color
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

I think the display is worse on the SGIII.
iPhone 5 for example uses Sharp IPS LCD panels and have won many tests against SGIII in terms of display quality and the Nexus 4 uses a newer and better display - though the IPS panel made by LG.
Or perhaps you just like oversaturated colors and the blueish tint that you get from OLED.
http://www.displaymate.com/Smartphone_ShootOut_2.htm

spoonboy said:
As someone who had an S3, went to a N4, then went back to an S3 I noticed the following things after going back to the S3:
The S3's screen is nowhere near as sharp as the Nexus 4's. I never thought the difference between pentile and non pentile was big, but it is. Text is far clearer. Colours between the two are preference. I like the pop of the S3s screen.
The S3 is a slow phone. The Nexus 4 craps on it for UI speed.
The Nexus battery life is rubbish. I do not understand how people are getting 5 hours of on screen time - maybe they have everything turned off. I like to have wifi, gps, BT, 3g all turned on all the time and the Nexus 4 would barely get me through a day. The S3 easily does it and also has the option of spare battery. Also when gaming on the Nexus the battery goes down a % a minute at least. I played sworcery for 20 mins and my battery had gone from 80 to 50something%!
The Nexus 4 gets HOT during demanding gaming. Like, really hot. Changing the kernel fixed this - I don't know how.
Stock android quick toggles, whilst looking really good aren't useful at all. All they do is take you to the settings menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting points, but yes the s3 definitely has better battery life than the nexus, unfortunately that is something the nexus isnt good at. But its the fastest android phone, maybe the optimus g as well? I dont know but the nexus is ridiculously fast. Im confident that future android updates will adress those battery issues. In the mean time there are great roms and kernels that give extra juice like franco's kernel or matrix kernel.
I also missed the swipe left/right to call/message from touchwiz.

I agree on the screen, washed out and viewing angles are horrible.

italia0101 said:
Couldnt disagree more with the OP ,
but everyone's allowed an opinion .... I think the screen is fantastic and sharp, the S3 imo is oversaturated, and some professionals have said the colours are much truer to life than the S3s , and like @hewettBR said , you could calibrate it to pretty much do anything ya wanted ..
Im a little confused, did you not know what you were getting with stock android? its stock, bone, clean, if you dont like it maybe try a custom rom?
Also the battery life on my device has been fine, gets me through a days usage with 30% left and 3 hours of screen on time, no problem what so ever. also some custom kernels people have got 5-6 hours of screen on time
Just my 2 cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
spoonboy said:
As someone who had an S3, went to a N4, then went back to an S3 I noticed the following things after going back to the S3:
The S3's screen is nowhere near as sharp as the Nexus 4's. I never thought the difference between pentile and non pentile was big, but it is. Text is far clearer. Colours between the two are preference. I like the pop of the S3s screen.
The S3 is a slow phone. The Nexus 4 craps on it for UI speed.
The Nexus battery life is rubbish. I do not understand how people are getting 5 hours of on screen time - maybe they have everything turned off. I like to have wifi, gps, BT, 3g all turned on all the time and the Nexus 4 would barely get me through a day. The S3 easily does it and also has the option of spare battery. Also when gaming on the Nexus the battery goes down a % a minute at least. I played sworcery for 20 mins and my battery had gone from 80 to 50something%!
The Nexus 4 gets HOT during demanding gaming. Like, really hot. Changing the kernel fixed this - I don't know how.
I also missed the swipe left/right to call/message from touchwiz.
Stock android quick toggles, whilst looking really good aren't useful at all. All they do is take you to the settings menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree on the sharp screen of the Nexus but thats LCD tech and any LCD with 300+ PPI gives that.
My S3 isnt slow though? i tend to use Omega Rom which is rapid. Its easily on par with nexus.
The 400 PPI S4 looks to be the phone for me that will give the sharp text

Dear soon-to-return-nexus-4-users,
You realize the Nexus phone, or any Nexus phone, runs Android WITHOUT any 3rd party skin/addon/UI/etc...?
Yes?
OK. Then Why you ***** about a certain feature exist in a certain 3rd party skin/addon/UI/etc... not available in plain Android?
Next, you should also realize that the pro of owning a Nexus phone is not only about getting updates faster, It's also about the development of Custom ROM/Kernels.
So if you buy a Nexus phone and expect to use it like S3 (i.e. without tinkering the device), you are buying it wrong and I do, REALLY do suggest you return it and go back to your TouchWiz phones.
Later.

it's true google calibration is a bit washed out and weak out of the box
but..
1) let the glue dry and screen burn in for a week or two
2) you can make the colours burn your eyes out with gamma control kernels if you want

irzero said:
The 400 PPI S4 looks to be the phone for me that will give the sharp text
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You won't be able to tell the differences under normal usage conditions. Trust me.
And I can already forsee tons of website will use magnifiers to tell you how small the pixels are and how sharp things are.

Let the glue dry?

richteralan said:
You won't be able to tell the differences under normal usage conditions. Trust me.
And I can already forsee tons of website will use magnifiers to tell you how small the pixels are and how sharp things are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Complete waste of phone battery and processing power IMO - why the **** would you want 400PPI when you can't even see the difference!
And no damn website would ever use 400PPI images - simply because they would be HUGE in size.
---------- Post added at 07:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:52 PM ----------
ferris2375 said:
Let the glue dry?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sarcasm i think.

T-Mobile Flex vs VZW Note2.. Its what I'm coming from

Despite the fact I'm posting from my note2, I do own the Flex. I've had it for less than 24 hours, and I have my first impressions.
On my first charge, I experienced sub-par battery life compared to my Note2 on Verizon running Beans22 which is underclocked in both CPU and GPU.
I have switched from Verizon to T-Mobile and I get very similar reception on both phones (LTE) at home, and HSPA+/3g at work. Must be same cell tower for both carriers. I live and work in Ashburn VA, and I'm positive of the towers location.
I use my phone a lot for gaming, particularly Heroes of Order and Chaos. I don't think the Flex can handle that game as well as Note2 in regard to battery life. Performance is about the same...
Network lag on Tmo is worse than VZW, but the bandwidth on TMO is nucking futs. 30mbps TMO vs 12mbps VZW. I don't know what's up with the lag.
Screens. I have to give it to the Note2 for quality, but I love the size of the Flex's screen. I like the curved appearance. That's unique and worth the trade off in quality.
Quality is weird here. Resolution is the same, it its the grainyness I'm not liking, and it noticeable in solid textures such as the drop down menu. Brightness.. I haven't tested outdoor yet. That's a true test for me, but I will have to get to it later.
I love what LG has done with the interface. Its like having a custom ROM without the problems associated with a custom ROM. Add root, new battery icon, and remove ads, and I'm set. I have yet to do these just yet, but I will, and functionality will be that of my rooted Note2. Won't have the ability to under and over clock as I do with my Note's unlocked bootloader, but oh well.
Camera. Note2 all the way. There are tons more features, and low light quality on the Note blows away the Flex. I'm not happy with the Flex's camera actually, and it may be a determining factor in returning this device and getting the Note3. I haven't tried video as I don't shot much video in real life.
Button placement. Man that's just something you have to adapt to I suppose. I'm still fumbling around with the power button so I understand up using the knock function a lot, but sometimes it just doesn't work. That's kind of annoying. Sometimes I have to knock several times to get it to work. sometimes it works the first time, and when it does there is a lag.
Note2 has capacitive back and menu buttons along with a physical power button. I really love that because at all times you maximize your screen real estate because its not being consumed by the on screen buttons. If you subtract the on screen menu button real estate from the Flex and compare that screen size with the Note2, they are about the same in size, the Flex being a bit wider.
Note3 for me maybe?
Any questions, let me know I will be happy to answer them.
Cheers!
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

I'm also coming from the note 2 but I disagree with the battery life statement. I'm getting like 10 hours screen time with this when I would only get like 4 or 5 from the note. This phone is a beast.
Otherwise everything else I agree with. Display, picture, sound, etc were all better on the note, albeit by not a whole lot.
Overall I'm satisfied with the phone. The aesthetics are nice, screen size is exactly what I wanted, battery life is phenomenal and it's super fast.
Sent from my LG-D959 using xda app-developers app

You can hide the buttons on your lg flex without root. Battery life is worlds better on the flex even better than the note 3. Besides display i seen nothing on Samsung that's better imo. I did like my note 3 for pics but haven't really checked the flex yet. I really like my flex better than the note 3 or 2. Out would've been far superior if the flex would've had the 1080p display. Can't wait till second generation of the flex.
Funny thing is i liked my note 2 Better than i do my note 3. But at the same time i like the flex better than both. Glad to have had all three. There are all great devices,
Sent from my LG-D959 using Tapatalk

Yea, they are all great, and great for different reasons.
Maybe my first charge was not true to what consecutive charges will be. I'm on my second charge, and it seems okay. Nothing I'd write home about.
Sent from my LG-D959 using Tapatalk

is it true that when you crank the brightness up over 50, any "graininess" on the screen is pretty much gone?
surprised to hear the camera isnt up to par with the note 2..
thanks

Yes, its true, the brighter you set the display, the less you see the grain. Also being in a bright environment helps too such as outdoors or in a well lit room.
Sent from my LG-D959 using Tapatalk

wase4711 said:
is it true that when you crank the brightness up over 50, any "graininess" on the screen is pretty much gone?
surprised to hear the camera isnt up to par with the note 2..
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea its true and i dont know if its just me getting use to it or that the phone has broken in but screen is looking better than initially. I remeber there was some device that the screen need to get some use so they can get broken in or something like that.
Sent from my LG-D959 using xda app-developers app

Dude, I'm totally thinking the same thing. Its not that I don't notice it, I simply can't find the grainyness even if I look for it. I'm mean its there... But not like I remember it
Sent from my LG-D959 using Tapatalk

sometimes, when a thought is planted in your mind, you go out of your way to look for things..
after a day or 2, when you just chilllax and use it as normal, you dont see what you were obsessed with b4
or, its actually possible after a few days, the display "Breaks in" somewhat..sort of like not calibrating a TV until you have at least 100 hours or more on it...

Tornlogic said:
Despite the fact I'm posting from my note2, I do own the Flex. I've had it for less than 24 hours, and I have my first impressions.
On my first charge, I experienced sub-par battery life compared to my Note2 on Verizon running Beans22 which is underclocked in both CPU and GPU.
I have switched from Verizon to T-Mobile and I get very similar reception on both phones (LTE) at home, and HSPA+/3g at work. Must be same cell tower for both carriers. I live and work in Ashburn VA, and I'm positive of the towers location.
I use my phone a lot for gaming, particularly Heroes of Order and Chaos. I don't think the Flex can handle that game as well as Note2 in regard to battery life. Performance is about the same...
Network lag on Tmo is worse than VZW, but the bandwidth on TMO is nucking futs. 30mbps TMO vs 12mbps VZW. I don't know what's up with the lag.
Screens. I have to give it to the Note2 for quality, but I love the size of the Flex's screen. I like the curved appearance. That's unique and worth the trade off in quality.
Quality is weird here. Resolution is the same, it its the grainyness I'm not liking, and it noticeable in solid textures such as the drop down menu. Brightness.. I haven't tested outdoor yet. That's a true test for me, but I will have to get to it later.
I love what LG has done with the interface. Its like having a custom ROM without the problems associated with a custom ROM. Add root, new battery icon, and remove ads, and I'm set. I have yet to do these just yet, but I will, and functionality will be that of my rooted Note2. Won't have the ability to under and over clock as I do with my Note's unlocked bootloader, but oh well.
Camera. Note2 all the way. There are tons more features, and low light quality on the Note blows away the Flex. I'm not happy with the Flex's camera actually, and it may be a determining factor in returning this device and getting the Note3. I haven't tried video as I don't shot much video in real life.
Button placement. Man that's just something you have to adapt to I suppose. I'm still fumbling around with the power button so I understand up using the knock function a lot, but sometimes it just doesn't work. That's kind of annoying. Sometimes I have to knock several times to get it to work. sometimes it works the first time, and when it does there is a lag.
Note2 has capacitive back and menu buttons along with a physical power button. I really love that because at all times you maximize your screen real estate because its not being consumed by the on screen buttons. If you subtract the on screen menu button real estate from the Flex and compare that screen size with the Note2, they are about the same in size, the Flex being a bit wider.
Note3 for me maybe?
Any questions, let me know I will be happy to answer them.
Cheers!
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You talked about possibly going to the Note 3, which I have. What would be the major difference that works sway you to the Note 3. I enjoy it and like having the SD card functionality because all my music is on there and I also use it to take notes a basketball coach.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

Also coming from a Note 2. Unless they are side by side i feel the G Flex is smaller, i think its because the curve and small bessel. So if this was a flat 6 inch it would probably look and feel bigger. I forget its in my front picked. Lol. Enjoying it.

Thanks for the thread guys. I've got a note 2, but getting bored (it's been a year in one phone which is very new to me). Don't really want a note 3 because it's basically a slightly bigger version of what I have. I'm really thinking about the flex. Glad to see some reviews of actual owners who have had both.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk

alhadee12 said:
You talked about possibly going to the Note 3, which I have. What would be the major difference that works sway you to the Note 3. I enjoy it and like having the SD card functionality because all my music is on there and I also use it to take notes a basketball coach.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mainly the on screen buttons annoy me. Sometimes when I'm typing , instead of hitting the space bar I end up hitting the home button.
The screen quality
Sd card
Stylus
Minusus:
I hate touch wiz. It doesn't bother me on my note 2 because it's rommed.
Don't like Sammy radios
Cost more
Not curved. I love the Flex for that
Sent from my LG-D959 using Tapatalk

Tornlogic said:
Mainly the on screen buttons annoy me. Sometimes when I'm typing , instead of hitting the space bar I end up hitting the home button.
The screen quality
Sd card
Stylus
Minusus:
I hate touch wiz. It doesn't bother me on my note 2 because it's rommed.
Don't like Sammy radios
Cost more
Not curved. I love the Flex for that
Sent from my LG-D959 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In not a big Touchwiz fan either. It just provides me the opportunity to do different things with the stylus and multitasking. I do think the curve firm factor could be useful.
Sent from my XT1058 using xda app-developers app

I find the multitasking on the lg UI more intuitive than Touch Wiz. I did use my stylus on my note2 only for taking notes, but the Flex had a wonderful note app that I like more, and I use my fingernail, and the screen has no issue detecting my fingernail
Sent from my LG-D959 using Tapatalk

I'll likely stop into a store to take a longer look at it. Take the opportunity to go through the phone some and see what it really has to offer.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk