Database Develop

Garbage

Hi,
I am an unfortunate owner of this POS. I also own a Pebble.
The battery life is 1 - 2 days. I knew this going in, but if you use it a lot outdoors (and have to turn the brightness up) then its much closer to 1 day.
The apps are terrible. Beyond terrible. Most dont work properly or at all. Eg. Evernote "recent notes", Tweet QuickView (which simply doesnt work - see my review and vendor reply on the app store.).
Notifications (surely the only thing that I *need* a smart watch for?) are pathetic. If I get a GMail, a Tweet etc then it tells me to look at it on the phone. I cannot add other apps into the notifications list... so Tapatalk, my own Android apps etc cannot send even a notification prompt to the phone.
Camera is poor quality and useless. Speaker is too quiet to use for calls (not that you would want to) and the Media Controller is not some clever OS level change - it just plays whatever music app is in "ongoing notifications". Same as Pebble and Augmented Smartwatch etc. So sometimes you dont play the media you want.
Do not buy this product. There is nothing good about it at all.
Neil

RealEvil_UK said:
Hi,
I am an unfortunate owner of this POS. I also own a Pebble.
The battery life is 1 - 2 days. I knew this going in, but if you use it a lot outdoors (and have to turn the brightness up) then its much closer to 1 day.
The apps are terrible. Beyond terrible. Most dont work properly or at all. Eg. Evernote "recent notes", Tweet QuickView (which simply doesnt work - see my review and vendor reply on the app store.).
Notifications (surely the only thing that I *need* a smart watch for?) are pathetic. If I get a GMail, a Tweet etc then it tells me to look at it on the phone. I cannot add other apps into the notifications list... so Tapatalk, my own Android apps etc cannot send even a notification prompt to the phone.
Camera is poor quality and useless. Speaker is too quiet to use for calls (not that you would want to) and the Media Controller is not some clever OS level change - it just plays whatever music app is in "ongoing notifications". Same as Pebble and Augmented Smartwatch etc. So sometimes you dont play the media you want.
Do not buy this product. There is nothing good about it at all.
Neil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you just purchase it or??? If you just purchased it today you should take it back. I thought about purchasing it but I am going to wait. I usually jump on first gen stuff but I had the Inpulse watch, I had the Wim Labs prototype, I had the playbook (and see how that turned out).
I hope there are other people that will chime in about this. FWIW, I also think the pebble is crap. The support, I hear, is the same lousy support the company provided for the Inpulse watch.

Not surprised a bit

RealEvil_UK said:
Hi,
I am an unfortunate owner of this POS. I also own a Pebble.
The battery life is 1 - 2 days. I knew this going in, but if you use it a lot outdoors (and have to turn the brightness up) then its much closer to 1 day.
The apps are terrible. Beyond terrible. Most dont work properly or at all. Eg. Evernote "recent notes", Tweet QuickView (which simply doesnt work - see my review and vendor reply on the app store.).
Notifications (surely the only thing that I *need* a smart watch for?) are pathetic. If I get a GMail, a Tweet etc then it tells me to look at it on the phone. I cannot add other apps into the notifications list... so Tapatalk, my own Android apps etc cannot send even a notification prompt to the phone.
Camera is poor quality and useless. Speaker is too quiet to use for calls (not that you would want to) and the Media Controller is not some clever OS level change - it just plays whatever music app is in "ongoing notifications". Same as Pebble and Augmented Smartwatch etc. So sometimes you dont play the media you want.
Do not buy this product. There is nothing good about it at all.
Neil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sucks to hear , the notifications seem like crap but apparently need to be updated by vendor. Someone mentioned a new API that would allow a 3rd party to setup a notification system. No idea how they could launch with such limited notifications.
Can you upload some camera and video samples ? One mans crap is another mans "ok"

xManMythLegend said:
Sucks to hear , the notifications seem like crap but apparently need to be updated by vendor. Someone mentioned a new API that would allow a 3rd party to setup a notification system. No idea how they could launch with such limited notifications.
Can you upload some camera and video samples ? One mans crap is another mans "ok"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate to fan the fire between us but having read your mail I find myself asking if YOU actually own one? Why do you keep asking for pictures?
---------- Post added at 09:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:07 PM ----------
RealEvil_UK said:
Hi,
I am an unfortunate owner of this POS. I also own a Pebble.
The battery life is 1 - 2 days. I knew this going in, but if you use it a lot outdoors (and have to turn the brightness up) then its much closer to 1 day.
The apps are terrible. Beyond terrible. Most dont work properly or at all. Eg. Evernote "recent notes", Tweet QuickView (which simply doesnt work - see my review and vendor reply on the app store.).
Notifications (surely the only thing that I *need* a smart watch for?) are pathetic. If I get a GMail, a Tweet etc then it tells me to look at it on the phone. I cannot add other apps into the notifications list... so Tapatalk, my own Android apps etc cannot send even a notification prompt to the phone.
Camera is poor quality and useless. Speaker is too quiet to use for calls (not that you would want to) and the Media Controller is not some clever OS level change - it just plays whatever music app is in "ongoing notifications". Same as Pebble and Augmented Smartwatch etc. So sometimes you dont play the media you want.
Do not buy this product. There is nothing good about it at all.
Neil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unsure what you where expecting. I am unhappy with the gear also but for different reasons. Oddly enough I have experienced zero software problems to date.
With care and respect I have to ask what you expected from the camera? Jeez its a toy and more or less just for fund snaps. I have this thing about phone cameras. I love photography so use a DSLR. I know little about the art but do know one cannot seriously expect great photos from a mobile phone., or wrist watch in this case.
It is sad as yet again I feel a major brand has introduced to a market a product that is not user ready. I mean the IP is IP55!! Water and this watch are not friends.
At present I am enjoying the learning curve and new toy. I said before I purchased it that it would end up collecting dust in some draw before long. Lets see. BTW I bought mine on the 27th and the battery only needed a charge this afternoon? £ days of decent usage and experimenting.
I expected to need to recharge every night. Not the case so far.
Don't set me of regarding the quality of that strap
In your shoes I would return it for a refund. Problem is for this type of device this is as good as it gets.
Kind regards..

I look forward to getting mine next week, but I will have 14 days to check it out and by the sounds of things I may not be happy (time will tell) and if I am not I will just return it and get something else.
BTW there is always the Omate TrueSmart watch which can be used without a SIM and is competely water proof.

Ryland Johnson said:
I hate to fan the fire between us but having read your mail I find myself asking if YOU actually own one? Why do you keep asking for pictures?
---------- Post added at 09:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:07 PM ----------
Unsure what you where expecting. I am unhappy with the gear also but for different reasons. Oddly enough I have experienced zero software problems to date.
With care and respect I have to ask what you expected from the camera? Jeez its a toy and more or less just for fund snaps. I have this thing about phone cameras. I love photography so use a DSLR. I know little about the art but do know one cannot seriously expect great photos from a mobile phone., or wrist watch in this case.
It is sad as yet again I feel a major brand has introduced to a market a product that is not user ready. I mean the IP is IP55!! Water and this watch are not friends.
At present I am enjoying the learning curve and new toy. I said before I purchased it that it would end up collecting dust in some draw before long. Lets see. BTW I bought mine on the 27th and the battery only needed a charge this afternoon? £ days of decent usage and experimenting.
I expected to need to recharge every night. Not the case so far.
Don't set me of regarding the quality of that strap
In your shoes I would return it for a refund. Problem is for this type of device this is as good as it gets.
Kind regards..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
he would return if he actully bought one....these are usually paid trolls by other companies....if i have bought sometime and im not satisfy with it.i will just take it back and not write stupid stuff about it.(beauty is eye of the beholder)i may not like something that dont mean the other person wont like it.

Ryland Johnson said:
I hate to fan the fire between us but having read your mail I find myself asking if YOU actually own one? Why do you keep asking for pictures?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously I do not which is why I have given no opinion on it.
He started a thread claiming the picture and video quality being poor. Why wouldn't I ask for samples?
It's crazy to just take everyone's opinion and not ask for something tangible.
When people make negative threads they should expect to back-up claims.
Also I have taken no offense to your posts.

Hi,
The Samsung Experience Store in Westfield Shopping Centre (in London) told me that I cannot have a refund. I am now arguing with them that the product is defective as its clearly not "ready to be sold and is therefore defective". To be honest I am not going to stress too much on it as I *only* paid £200 as I bought with a Note 3 (which I love) and due to a pre-order offer I got a total of £100 savings for buying the 2 together. I will sell it on eBay if I have to and probably not lose much. And in case you cannot detect the cynicism - I do feel cheated that I spent £200 on this device as the only way to get it for this price was to pre-order it BEFORE the release, which meant I couldn't try the device before pre-ordering and pre-paying. As soon as I used it for more than a day I phoned them up and they told me that they do not accept returns for anything that is not defective.
Do you really need me to give you a photo sample? Reviews are full of them. The watch strap camera is poor. I didn't expect more, but it takes awful photos in anything other than good light. This is inline with my expectations going in, but it doesn't make it any less of a half baked feature.
The Apps are dreadful. Most S-Voice commands dont work via the watch. Whoever said they got 4 days battery life has had a very different experience to me. The battery life is very much linked to the screen brightness from my experience - and anything less that full brightness is not very readable outdoors. Indoors with low brightness I guess its possible that I would get 4 days... but I dont think I will own the device long enough to really test it.

RealEvil_UK said:
Hi,
The Samsung Experience Store in Westfield Shopping Centre (in London) told me that I cannot have a refund. I am now arguing with them that the product is defective as its clearly not "ready to be sold and is therefore defective". To be honest I am not going to stress too much on it as I *only* paid £200 as I bought with a Note 3 (which I love) and due to a pre-order offer I got a total of £100 savings for buying the 2 together. I will sell it on eBay if I have to and probably not lose much. And in case you cannot detect the cynicism - I do feel cheated that I spent £200 on this device as the only way to get it for this price was to pre-order it BEFORE the release, which meant I couldn't try the device before pre-ordering and pre-paying. As soon as I used it for more than a day I phoned them up and they told me that they do not accept returns for anything that is not defective.
Do you really need me to give you a photo sample? Reviews are full of them. The watch strap camera is poor. I didn't expect more, but it takes awful photos in anything other than good light. This is inline with my expectations going in, but it doesn't make it any less of a half baked feature.
The Apps are dreadful. Most S-Voice commands dont work via the watch. Whoever said they got 4 days battery life has had a very different experience to me. The battery life is very much linked to the screen brightness from my experience - and anything less that full brightness is not very readable outdoors. Indoors with low brightness I guess its possible that I would get 4 days... but I dont think I will own the device long enough to really test it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i totally not agree with you
we just have to wait... and i can explain you why
(before all, sorry for my bad english)
the notifications works bad, i agree, BUT it's a software problem that (hopefully) will be fixed by 3rd party apps
an example? do you use Line?
if you don't use it please throw whatsapp into the garbage and try line
Line has an app for the gear that not only shows very beautiful notifications style, but let you reply with some pre-selected stickers.
we just have to wait for software houses to update and code their own notification app
i'm confident this will happen soon
the gear have a GREAT potential... something that pebble doesn't have (i've got the pebble too)
let's wait a bit... it's out since few days.
PS: battery time 2 days for me

Yes, when someone on XDA says photos are garbage then photos are requisite.
I saw pics and videos and comments were nowhere near as negative as yours. If you post pics perhaps some kind of flaw or problem with your unit can be revealed. Or we come to the conclusion your "taste" is different from others.
You guys think way too highly of your "opinions" and expect them to be taken as gospel. Make a claim back it up let others scrutinize. That's how things work, that's how problems, bugs, hardware flaws get exposed. Not "it's garbage trust me".
Gear could be the crappiest waste ever... But if you say it is... Show people why.

faremoney said:
i totally not agree with you
we just have to wait... and i can explain you why
(before all, sorry for my bad english)
the notifications works bad, i agree, BUT it's a software problem that (hopefully) will be fixed by 3rd party apps
an example? do you use Line?
if you don't use it please throw whatsapp into the garbage and try line
Line has an app for the gear that not only shows very beautiful notifications style, but let you reply with some pre-selected stickers.
we just have to wait for software houses to update and code their own notification app
i'm confident this will happen soon
the gear have a GREAT potential... something that pebble doesn't have (i've got the pebble too)
let's wait a bit... it's out since few days.
PS: battery time 2 days for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I dont think that anyone - not even Samsung - can release a brand new product which *requires* 3rd party app developers to do something to support it. Why would Google bother to update GMail to support a few thousand watch owners? I wouldn't.
What Samsung should have implemented - just like a lot of the supporting apps for Pebble (e.g. Augmented SmartWatch Pro) - is to "scrape" all notifications and allow them ALL to be sent to the watch. This way, 3rd party app developers don't *have* to do anything. They only have to write apps for the device if they wish to offer something extra.

RealEvil_UK said:
Hi, I dont think that anyone - not even Samsung - can release a brand new product which *requires* 3rd party app developers to do something to support it. Why would Google bother to update GMail to support a few thousand watch owners? I wouldn't.
What Samsung should have implemented - just like a lot of the supporting apps for Pebble (e.g. Augmented SmartWatch Pro) - is to "scrape" all notifications and allow them ALL to be sent to the watch. This way, 3rd party app developers don't *have* to do anything. They only have to write apps for the device if they wish to offer something extra.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes but in the moment we are talking, ebay JUST released Ebay for Gear.... and it works beautifully
and remember there is a market out there... the apps can be free or paid, so who comes first can find an open market... :good:

This product wont be a success. Samsung will learn from it and release a updated model with wider Android support and for half the price within the next 6 - 12 months. That v2 product will probably be worth considering, but I feel cheated as a v1 owner that this product has been very poorly thought out and is effectively a alpha product/proof of concept.
The most basic functionality of Smart Watch - to me at least - is notifications. Custom apps are potentially interesting but not the "vital" feature that I could use 20 - 50 times a day. And in this regard, the Galaxy Gear is a terrible failure.

I think, I don't know, that a number of us are disappointed with the gear for several reasons.
Most of us made this a re order purchase mea culpa, to this end not only where any hands on reviews thin on the ground but until launch date non of us even knew what it would even look like.
Again I guess, It is perhaps significant that many of us purchased the Note 3 and the Gear as a pre order purchase at a discount price. Like many here I made a saving on the Gear by purchasing the two items together. Call me suspicious but perhaps and only perhaps, Samsung knew this was very much a project in the making and sold the Gear discounted knowing it would soften the blow? This is of course pure conjecture.
I made this purchase for several reasons. I have enjoyed my past Samsung mobiles, the Nexus S, SGS2, 3 and Note 1. I am a gadget freak, love the stuff always have. Lastly I collect watches, that's in by blood.
One can imagine my response when a new mobile AND watch came out together. Geek nirvana.
The Gear IS expensive, its not a cheapo try it and bin it. IF the concept had worked it would have been acceptable. With due respect to Samsung I cant see this as a consumer ready device.
Okay. The camera. Again with due respect and care for the OP I am unsure what any of us could reasonably expect from a 1,9 MP camera?
Its a sales gimmick and something to use to snap a quick shot, though even that doesn't work.
What does concern me the most is that strap and clasp. The clasp is the type that has a history of being the most problematic and is generally found on the cheaper end of the market for watches if used at all these days. When we close the clasp and here that 'click' that sound is made by a tiny piece of pressed steel bending slightly into a hole and binding with the other half of the clasp. What happens is after time that tiny tiny piece of metal weakens and eventually no longer 'clicks' into place.
What customers then do is try to bend it back so it again will hold and this further weakens the pressed steel part. I wont write again about the material used to produce the strap-under body as I simply cannot for see the future. What I can guess, again, is this strap is perhaps not going to last too long, it just doesn't feel durable and is certainly not vulcanised rubber. The strap is an integral part of the watch and cannot thus be replaced, hence my over concern regarding the strap.
As for the software, I am still learning how to use it and have come across some possible flaws BUT it may be ignorance on my part and until I read the manual and try to resolve the problem I am experiencing I will not complain.
Lastly I do agree with those owners who suggest this is very much a work in progress and should perhaps have been delayed for further development until at least the water resistance could be improved etc....
ALL opinion form an owner. Time is going to be the best teacher.
Kind regards.

Here is my take on this. I don't own Gear, yet, and my opinion is based on reading other reviews and opinions and in general based on the fact that I review gadgets on XDA as a full time hobby (check out link in my signature ).
A success of smartwatch is based on hardware and software. So far the main gripe I heard about hardware is battery life which to my pleasant surprise people reporting to as lasting1-2 days rather then "less then a day", all that with typical use or perhaps higher then average since everybody wants to play with camera. I suspect that might even improve with some software optimization in the future. Other then that, I also heard some people saying wristband is not was they expected (in terms of material) - oh well, this is not your typical $500-$1000 watch but rather an electronic gadget you strap to your wrist. So basically most of the complains are with software which we all know going to be fixed, sooner (from Samsung) or later (maybe even with some rooting or custom ROM, etc.) Once 4.3 updates start rolling in to cover S3/S4/N2 users and US market going to see N3 release that's when the real "beta" testing going to start. Right now, you guys are alpha-testers, early technology adopters. Everyone's expectations was that it will work straight out of the box. Well, it happened to some extent but not 100%. I'm sure the improvement will happen in the next few months, just have to be patient if you decide to stick around and keep this smartwatch.
Just my 2 cents.

RealEvil_UK said:
Hi, I dont think that anyone - not even Samsung - can release a brand new product which *requires* 3rd party app developers to do something to support it. Why would Google bother to update GMail to support a few thousand watch owners? I wouldn't.
What Samsung should have implemented - just like a lot of the supporting apps for Pebble (e.g. Augmented SmartWatch Pro) - is to "scrape" all notifications and allow them ALL to be sent to the watch. This way, 3rd party app developers don't *have* to do anything. They only have to write apps for the device if they wish to offer something extra.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android 4.3 has the APIs to do just that.
I'm working on that app right now. Will keep XDA updated with progress

vectron said:
Here is my take on this. I don't own Gear, yet, and my opinion is based on reading other reviews and opinions and in general based on the fact that I review gadgets on XDA as a full time hobby (check out link in my signature ).
A success of smartwatch is based on hardware and software. So far the main gripe I heard about hardware is battery life which to my pleasant surprise people reporting to as lasting1-2 days rather then "less then a day", all that with typical use or perhaps higher then average since everybody wants to play with camera. I suspect that might even improve with some software optimization in the future. Other then that, I also heard some people saying wristband is not was they expected (in terms of material) - oh well, this is not your typical $500-$1000 watch but rather an electronic gadget you strap to your wrist. So basically most of the complains are with software which we all know going to be fixed, sooner (from Samsung) or later (maybe even with some rooting or custom ROM, etc.) Once 4.3 updates start rolling in to cover S3/S4/N2 users and US market going to see N3 release that's when the real "beta" testing going to start. Right now, you guys are alpha-testers, early technology adopters. Everyone's expectations was that it will work straight out of the box. Well, it happened to some extent but not 100%. I'm sure the improvement will happen in the next few months, just have to be patient if you decide to stick around and keep this smartwatch.
Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I will 'try' one more time....The strap. The cost of the Gear is immaterial in terms of the strap. What is vital is the strap lasts so the watch can function. No strap no watch? The watch could be 50.00€-500,000.00€ BUT once that strap goes so does the watch, its a non replaceable part. I just cant explain this point any clearer.
Regards

Personally I am holding off on this watch for two main reasons... One may be possible with third party apps, the other can't. I am not a fan of svoice and want to be able to type a reply to a text vs saying it. Most of the time I am at work and don't want svoice going off and talking to my watch to send a replay of "lol" or "ok". Omate has a keyboard but I hate the look of it. Second is the camera... I wish they made a gear without a camera. That hump on the strap is so ugly. I want the watch to look semi professional and that hump kills it. Wish I could combine omate and gear... Would be perfect for me.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

Wow, just got a call from Samsung who have agreed to take the watch back and give me a refund. Nice.
As a few people have commented - it will get better. But I am not sure Samsung will have the patience for this particular model, and they will likely release much better hardware within then next 6 - 9 months.
They could massively improve the device via software updates - no question. But I think they can only really do this by taking a step back and starting with the position that no app maker should have to *do* anything for it to be compatible with the Smart Watch. THIS is where the device needs to start. At the very least, all notifications should be on the watch and ideally actionable. Surely thats a better starting position than with a App Store model that no big app developer will bother with?

My 0,02$ about Gear

My first smartwatch ever was the original Sony Smartwatch 1. First of it's kind widely available, it was a pretty good product (if you compare the features to it's price). I bought Galaxy Gear few weeks ago shortly after startup for it's original price of 300 euros. I had it for few days and decided to return it, as this is a beta product with no support at all (at that time). So I returned the Gear and got Smartwatch 2 from Sony.. and that watch is really cool. It's waterproof to some point, it's very VERY light, super comfortable and you can even change the wrist stripe if you don't like the original one. It costs 150 EUR for silicon version, and 200 EUR for metal version here in Netherlands. So it's up to 50% cheaper than the Gear. Out of the box, you only have to install few applications to get messages, and notification to work. Installation is super easy and it works with nearly all devices running android 4.0 or higher. It's a nice device, but lack any kind of customization - and so far there haven't been any tools to change anything in the watch at all. Lately I got a chance to get a Gear for less than 200 EUR so I decided to give it another try, and here it is..
1. After using Smartwatch 2 for a while Gear feels more solid, but it's way more bulky. It doesn't rest nicely on my wrist, and I'm not a huge guy. I could survive uncomfortable top, but the metal bottom (where speaker and mic are located) is catastrophic. I can't stand having the watch on my wrist if I'm working on my desk, as it's touching the desk all the time and leaves scratches. Very annoying.
2. Installation. I had to change my custom ROM to original TouchWiz on my S3 to get Gear to work. Maybe it can work on custom - but there would be more troubles with it than stock so.. To get the full functionality, and don't run into endless troubles, you have to be stock, where SW2 works on custom roms without a single issue.
3. Out of the box experience.. it's a tragedy. The 'main menu' is really slow to operate, and even switching between apps can take few precious seconds. Notifications do not work properly. I have to use 3rd party app to get more notifications. No SMS forwarding to your watch. No replying to messages. No Gmail support. No keyboard. Simply nothing! Out of the box this is just a bluetooth headset with a clock. I don't know anyone who is really using S Voice on a daily basis. Samsung promised us making calls straight from our wrists, and Samsung did deliver that but..
4. Speaker quality - if you are using more than 50% of volume level, you can clearly hear a lot of buzzing. Sound is far from being clear. Not a huge issue though, it's a watch after all.
5. Hardware. Builtin camera that takes decent pictures and videos (as for a watch). Big plus! Loudspeaker so you don't have to hold your wrist to your ear - nice, although sometimes I would prefer to be the only one who can hear the other side (and look like an idiot, I don't care). AMOLED display with 320x320 resolution. Looks really sharp and vivid. Love it! Smartwatch is running a real Android 4.2.2, and that's great. You can root it, sideload apps and so.. but...
6. Usability - but it's pretty useless. There is no bluetooth tethering so you can't use any internet on your wrist (smartwatch 2 has a working internet browser!). You can install app like Tablet Talk to have messaging ability but it's really cumbersome, doesn't display your contact list, only the numbers are visible and generally, you can clearly see that it just wasn't designed for a wrist. I guess runninng Tablet Talk on Gear AND phone uses more battery which results in shorter battery life...
7. Typing. I can easily imagine typing short sentences/messages using Swype-like keyboard, or T9 styled. Display is big enough to send few words within seconds. Unfortunately that is not possible at the moment.
8. Future? There is definitely a future in smartwatches. This device is great, but Samsung tottaly ****ed up the software side. Nothing is working as it should, and if it does - it's cumbersome, and far from being user friendly. You can't get apps from Play Store, you have to use Samsung App Store which is really poor. There are very few apps that are actually somewhat usefull, but they do suck. I tried app like speedometer, that takes ages to start and catch a signal, and if it finally does - it's really ugly. SW2 to compare was displaying current GPS speed within seconds. When I was done with it, all I had to is just go back to home screen, or turn on the clock face, then GPS was stopped. On Gear? You have to open notifications, click on Speedometer, and FORCE STOP it in order to be closed. WHAAAAT?
I love the idea, I like the features (AMOLED, speaker, mic, touchscreen) but there way more wrong things with it than positive.. Media Controller doesn't always work properly, so you can't really shuffle songs etc. There is no SDK available to the publicity, so there won't be any dedicated apps from community anytime soon. Samsung didn't say anything that they will release it anyway so... if you buy the Gear, don't buy it cause it's gonna be "great in the future once XDA devs hack it". It didn't happen, noone knows if it's going to happen and what will come out of it...
I would really suggest waiting for next generation. But if you have spare cash, and can get the Gear cheaper than original price - go for it...

I don't think you would any of these problems if you use a samsung supported phone (N3, or S4 with latest update.)

skyline23 said:
I don't think you would any of these problems if you use a samsung supported phone (N3, or S4 with latest update.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using official Android 4.3 firmware provided by Samsung. S3 is officially supported.

hurdlejade said:
I'm using official Android 4.3 firmware provided by Samsung. S3 is officially supported.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To each his own. I'm sure the camera, mic and speaker and ability to use S Voice to respond to messages all work wonderfully on the SW2.

mhoepfin said:
To each his own. I'm sure the camera, mic and speaker and ability to use S Voice to respond to messages all work wonderfully on the SW2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
out of the box, SW2 beats Gear in every aspect, if you forget the camera/mic/speaker. S Voice? i guess it's only widely used in USA. i see a lot of people on the internet asking how to actually turn this thing off. it's one of the first things i did when i installed official 4.3 rom.
this is not a hate post. i just tried both products, they are both far from being perfect, and although gear seems to be superior, it lacks the software. and we shouldn't wait months for basic functionality that hardware is fully capable of.

It's all personal choice. I have both Sony s2 and the gear and in my opinion the gear is far better.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

ardsar said:
It's all personal choice. I have both Sony s2 and the gear and in my opinion the gear is far better.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
may i know why is it better? besides the camera/speaker/mic/svoice thingy.

It's my opinion and personal taste. .. It looks more like a watch rather than a big Square thing on your wrist. The Sony is only a second screen and is like a dumb terminal in that it can't run anything ( the Internet app you mention runs on the phone and relays the image to the watch) and you can't ignore the fact that it has a camera speaker Mike and svoice.
It's best to drop this thread like I said it's all personal opinion.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

ardsar said:
It's my opinion and personal taste. .. It looks more like a watch rather than a big Square thing on your wrist. The Sony is only a second screen and is like a dumb terminal in that it can't run anything ( the Internet app you mention runs on the phone and relays the image to the watch) and you can't ignore the fact that it has a camera speaker Mike and svoice.
It's best to drop this thread like I said it's all personal opinion.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i just wanted to find out why you prefer gear over SW2, that's it.
i do realise that the internet browser on SW2 works more or less on screenshots.. but it works! and there is no possibility to do so on Gear, although it's capable of real rendering.

Owning 2 Galaxy Gear I guess you can tell I like it. With more and more things being added to the ability of the Gear such as ATN and launchers, etc it is growing leaps and bound sans Samsung. There are 2 versions of Sony out there and this has been out weeks. I say write this after February when it has been thru a few updates. I don't need my watch to do everything the phones does or i wouldn't have bought a 5.7 inch phone. The great things is competition is great and I'm sure Apple is gearing up for theirs and then someone will come and beat theirs and so on and so on. Consumerism at it's best.

Oh yeah, it's not consumer ready at all. But for the hacker/maker crowd out there, it's by far and away the best.
Phone calls.. you can make phone calls from your wrist!!! Come ON that's so cool. You can hack out the click sounds and take super secret spy photos from your wrist....
I have a freakin' game boy emulator .. I can play pokemon on my watch!
HELLO this is like the dream
YES .. the speaker scratching is a problem on my mac book pro, I have to pull up my long sleeve shirt over the bottom to keep it from scraping across the laptop which annoys me as well.
Not sure how they're going to fix that.

There are already enough of these threads here...
The watch des exactly what it says. It is a companion to phone, not a replacement (Why does a watch actually need software?)
it also has mic/speaker/cam which all work surprising well. Didn't take long to adjust to bulky speaker when resting palm on flat surface (mind I wear it a little loose)
There are several default notifications that are sent that everyone has - sms, email, etc. Granted they could do with more detail (html emails, all text in notification), however that will have to come when apps start supporting it - 4.3 helps a lot here
it is waterproof enough - that whole thing seems to be a scare campaign. All the watches available can survive water, just not to the extent of swimming/diving
Gear looks the best out of the watches available and once you use it for a few weeks, then the chance of wanting to return is much lower. I'd say my Pebble does more currently (especially tasker integration!), however, I've not touched it since getting gear a month ago
It only supports 4.3 and Touchwiz, but if you look at the percentage of s3, note2, s4, note3, and future phones, there is no need to support others. Will people complain when apple come out with a watch and it only supports two devices like pretty much everything else they do? (latest and previous model)
Samsung really need to get a move on with releasing sdk though
Plus it is first gen, so it can't have everything. Just be thankful you aren't with Apple and have to wait years for stuff everyone already has
Still going to try out Neptune Pine when it is released, but it is a replacement not companion

blazespinnaker said:
Oh yeah, it's not consumer ready at all. But for the hacker/maker crowd out there, it's by far and away the best.
Phone calls.. you can make phone calls from your wrist!!! Come ON that's so cool. You can hack out the click sounds and take super secret spy photos from your wrist....
I have a freakin' game boy emulator .. I can play pokemon on my watch!
HELLO this is like the dream
YES .. the speaker scratching is a problem on my mac book pro, I have to pull up my long sleeve shirt over the bottom to keep it from scraping across the laptop which annoys me as well.
Not sure how they're going to fix that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm enjoying my Gear paired with Note 3. Still completely stock, and I can see how some might think the price is steep for what it currently does. But again, I am ok with what I paid for it, knowing what it does so far and knowing what lays in store for it in the future.
I need to read up on rooting and side loading. How effective is a gameboy emulator on the small screen? Seems like there wouldn't be enough room

Awesome
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hurdlejade said:
I would really suggest waiting for next generation. But if you have spare cash, and can get the Gear cheaper than original price - go for it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Snipped For Space!
At 73, I cannot play the waiting game. With smartwatches, women, and fastazz motorcycles..
I want and need it NOW!!
About you comments, they seemed to be like the case of one man's terrorist is another man's freedom-fighter..
BTW, can you answer and call from the SW2?? :fingers-crossed:

I also have a Sony Smartwatch 2. It's a great watch and the SDK support is superb. I recently bought the Gear and my first impression was
1. Wow, smaller than I thought. Because of the design less bulkier than the SW2. Way more stylish (up to a point even my gf thought that i didn't look like a total nerd)
2. Much better resolution and much clearer display
3. Touch response is so much better than the SW2
4. Awful charging method..
5. Miss the always on mode that the Sony has. The magical movement thing to wake up the Gear does work in say 75% of the time for me. The other 25% makes it a bad experience as a watch. Maybe I still have to get the hang of it and learn to make the movement work.. or maybe I have to adapt myself. Have the watch for 2 days now, I'm still learning and not ready to give an overall conclusion.
6 Apps.... yep the Sony has a lot more apps and yes there's a browser out there. But it also has a lot of weird amateuristic apps in the Play store (not made by Sony). I somehow am appreciating Samsung's approach now after a couple of days of using the Gear. They've teamed up with some good third party developers (a few not so good also) and seem to be very careful about what they release on the market right now. Seems like a good thing to me. I bet you can trash a potential goood product that still has to prove itself as a thing that could work by opening it for badly written and designed apps. Good thing to go easy on this. Nevertheless as a developer I love to jump on the bandwagon... But I understand that somehow one needs to direct the experience of a new product. Too many apps that do just half of what you can do can ruin the experience totally. (That said, they might have released the watch too early. On the other side, by releasing it early they now can work on a lot of feedback. It's a decision they've made and it is a decision that comes with a trade off (bad reviews), but in the end it might be the best decision. Nobody knows and nobody will know)

mike208 said:
I'm enjoying my Gear paired with Note 3. Still completely stock, and I can see how some might think the price is steep for what it currently does. But again, I am ok with what I paid for it, knowing what it does so far and knowing what lays in store for it in the future.
I need to read up on rooting and side loading. How effective is a gameboy emulator on the small screen? Seems like there wouldn't be enough room
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you kidding me! It's AWESOME ... well I have long thin fingers though. I use gameboid.
They could probably optimize the control setup on gameboid for the watch a bit more.
Sideloading is easy to do, don't need to root. I highly recommend it.
1. Wow, smaller than I thought. Because of the design less bulkier than the SW2. Way more stylish (up to a point even my gf thought that i didn't look like a total nerd)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. People have commented that the watch looks great. Sony with it's geeky logo and buttons... come ON.
That being said, there are pros/cons to them all. I'd *love* the battery life of the pebble on the Gear, but I can't go without having Android on my watch. That's just a non starter (for me), but I'm a developer so my opinion is entirely unreflective of the market at large .. but I love it, so who cares.
The one huge problem with the gear, in my opinion, is the lack of compatibility. That's what is really pissing 99% of the world out there that doesn't have a Note 3, frankly. This bundling nonsense is so deeply arrogant. It's monopolistic and completely unnecessary.
It's what makes you root against a company and pray they fail as an enterprise. It's the same sort of arrogance that makes me despise Apple and why I take every opportunity I can to root against them even though my career is tied up with their technology.

I agree with you on the speaker buckle being annoying, but otherwise, it's not THAT bad.

Former Pebble Steel User looking at the LG Watch R

Hello,
I just took back a pebble steel with a broken button and got a Moto 360. I'm not impressed with it. I like the android wear, and see it has a lot of potential, but my gripes with the 360 are mostly hardware related. It has piss poor battery life, a power-hungry screen tech that practically forbids "always-on", and a crappy processor which will likely be a problem going forward. The 360 will be returned this afternoon.
The LG Watch R appears to resolve some of these issues. Right now I'm trying to decide between the LG and going back to the Pebble Steel.
Some points:
I need a watch that will last at least 12 hours of heavy use (15-20 notifications an hour with vibrations). The 360 fails in this category. Not sure about the LG.
Size is not a factor. I prefer a bigger watch.
It needs to be always on showing at least the time and date.
Can be readable in sunlight.
Is somewhat future proof. This worries me about the Pebble. New apps developed for the Time already have features that only work in color. And then there is talk about Pebble having financial trouble.
I'm really torn. Any insights or things I haven't considered?

I am very critical of my tech hardware, keep that in mind while reading my response.
1: my g watch r is always on and lasts easily 24 hours, near 36 if I put it in hibernate while sleeping, however I don't believe I receive that many notifications,.. I'm probably more like 10/hour on average. I do use other features regularly like voice dial/text and card updates.
2: GWR is notoriously a larger round watch which I really really like. I'm 6'2" 195 athletic build and it fits my wrist nicely and looks like a 'larger' watch.
3: always on isn't a problem, neither is time and date when it goes to ambient mode. Plenty of face apps to choose from that show a variety of info in ambient.
4: readable in sunlight is not so good. Turned up to max brightness and in direct sunlight, you are going to be disappointed. I don't know that any display, on a clear day, can compete with the giant ball of nuclear fusion at the center of our solar system.
5: as for future proof, others here can chime in more accurately on that but I've had mine since December of last year and I do not notice any limitations in that arena- so much so that I'm blissfully ignorant of newcomers to the wearable market. One feature that is lacking is Wi-Fi connectivity which is supposed to be activated with an upcoming update. This will definitely come with an obvious downside: decreased battery life, which is a strong point of this watch, and your primary concern....also a feature I'm sure can be turned off.

Well, I ended up going back to the Pebble. I don't mind the e-ink, and I really don't think the Android Wear stuff is up to snuff quite yet.
I also like the thought of being able to go swimming, seeing the watch outdoors, and being able to operate it with gloves on.
Maybe I'll look at touch based watches again in another year.

pacificwing said:
Well, I ended up going back to the Pebble. I don't mind the e-ink, and I really don't think the Android Wear stuff is up to snuff quite yet.
I also like the thought of being able to go swimming, seeing the watch outdoors, and being able to operate it with gloves on.
Maybe I'll look at touch based watches again in another year.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow that was a quick decision. Were you REALLY looking for this?
In any case, 12 hours is a piece of cake and I am always playing with Watchmaker etc. I make it through the whole day with ease but I rarely wear it to sleep so I charge every night at about 11pm or so.
Android wear is for sure up to snuff. If you like e-ink then great, whatever suits you. I will keep enjoying my LG R.

Sounds like the Sony SW3 could be for you: transflective display that is readable in direct sunlight, good battery life and the most future-proof Android Wear watch currently on the market (the only one with NFC and GPS build in)

I upgraded to LG G Watch R from Pebble. I'm sure you won't regret it. The amount of luxuries you'll get with this will hide all the minor disadvantages.
---------- Post added at 06:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:34 PM ----------
2k4ever said:
Sounds like the Sony SW3 could be for you: transflective display that is readable in direct sunlight, good battery life and the most future-proof Android Wear watch currently on the market (the only one with NFC and GPS build in)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My best friend got a SW3. He always tells to me he should've better gone with G Watch R. He doesn't like the square look though. That's personal opinion. You can do what you want.

I switched from a Sony SW 3 to this LG gwatch R after a day. I got the metal Sony version and although I really liked the design and the square look, it's a REAL pain to charge it!!! Really, you have to push the watch out of the band, then poke the little plastic thingy out before sticking a micro-usb in. For something that needs charging every day, that's totally unacceptable to me.

Pebble replacement ?

Hi anyone,
Since Pebble kickstarter has been cancelled and I've received my refund.
I'm looking for a replacement for my pebble (first model) that starts to become old.
Unfortunately, I can't find a satisfying one. I need :
- Always on customizable screen
- One week autonomy
- Customizable notification
- Tasker integration
- Music control
- Third party apps
- No need of an activity tracker
- Water-resistant
I'm afraid that this is a dead-end for me.
Have you some suggestions ?
May be I can hope to see fitbit announcing pebble like smart watch...

I've actually found this link on the subject :
http://www.starkinsider.com/2016/12/pebble-dead-5-alternative-smartwatches.html

Vector Watch ...
Just got mine a week ago I can say it's a good replacement for FitBit. Not too many apps yet but they are working on getting that going. It's a nice concept, for me so far is the perfect Smart Watch that looks like a Watch.
It has:
-Always on customizable screen
- one MONTH autonomy
- Music control
- Third party apps (coming soon ... )
- No need of an activity tracker (has it but not the best)
- Water-resistant (50 m)
Missing from your list but most certainly will be available once they open the APPs dev portal.
- Customizable notification
- Tasker integration

mateiux said:
Vector Watch ...
Just got mine a week ago I can say it's a good replacement for FitBit. Not too many apps yet but they are working on getting that going. It's a nice concept, for me so far is the perfect Smart Watch that looks like a Watch.
It has:
-Always on customizable screen
- one MONTH autonomy
- Music control
- Third party apps (coming soon ... )
- No need of an activity tracker (has it but not the best)
- Water-resistant (50 m)
Missing from your list but most certainly will be available once they open the APPs dev portal.
- Customizable notification
- Tasker integration
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice indeed !
The software part seems to need some improvements but the basics are here.

OK sadly my Vector watch is on route to Amazon as a return ... really extremely sad ... this is the second watch brand with long battery life that FitBit killed...

mateiux said:
OK sadly my Vector watch is on route to Amazon as a return ... really extremely sad ... this is the second watch brand with long battery life that FitBit killed...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well not quite the same as pebble was. The support is alive as well as the warranty. The only thing they killed is the development. I keep mine cause I bought it with 2 years accidental cover from John Lewis. If any of the functionality would stop working I will return it to John Lewis.
There is no good alternative on the market.

After being very disappointed by how Pebble went down (I still think it is/was the best smartwatch out there), without new hardware, support, and so on, I kind of didn´t like wearing the watch any more. I have a Pebble time steel which got replaced due to the battery dying (it got really hot while dying and support for replacement or actually getting a statement about safety testing, like how hot this watch can get when the battery goes faulty, was really bad).
I wore the replacement for about 3 months and then stumbled over a forum post at Pebble where someone wore his watch during sleep and he got burned by also a dying battery so that he had a watch size big blister on his arm. So my estimate that the watch must be somewhere around 50 to 65 degree C was fairly accurate. I work in product development, and surface temperatures of appliances is a big issue, so you get a feeling for this after a couple of years.
Since then, I wore my old Pebble steel, but due to the screen tearing issue it had before, it has an edge where background light shines through really a lot (most likely to my fixing the tearing).
So all in all, I don´t like wearing my pebble any more. I have a similar mindset on what I expect from my smartwatch, so I finally settled for the 2 year old Sony smartwatch 3. They are fairly cheap currently. From a spec comparison, it seems similar to even some of the watches that were released late last year (depending on how high your budget is). I like that it has a transflective display and battery seems to last around 2-3 days with charging taking about an hour. I think I can live with that. And due to the regular micro usb charging, it won´t be an issue recharging the watch no matter where I am (car, office, at home, even at my parents house).
I definitively won´t go with any start up product again. Their products can be great, but a startup cannot take a big blow. Look at what Samsung can take with its note 7.
Maybe I should mention that I owned a Moto360 (first gen) at some point just for the fun of it and trying as it was on sale. I didn´t find android wear all that bad, but the watch dying on me before my day is over is a no go.
But these are just my 2 cents.

Agreed. I think pebble was a practical smart watch. As I use to call it a watch that's smart. Love it kinda still do but I really felt if pebble did a kick start movement to save the company they may have been successful.
Now the pebble backers are simply stuck with their item and now simply waiting for it to be outdated. I guess I'll just keep wearing out until battery issues.
I just don't know if I'd invest in another kick starter again.
Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk

duky_duke said:
I've actually found this link on the subject :
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you

Nice!

General Offloaded my S21 U.

Gonna miss the camera though, but sadly that's pretty much it for a $1300 device. Most of my frustration lately regarding this phone is about an excessive amount of advertising on part of Samsung.
I was getting constantly interrupted with adds prompting me to do this or that or, to consider some of their(Samsung) ideas with apps that would “enhance my Samsung experience” etc...etc... I mean, what is this? They don't own my phone, I paid for it so why do they think they're entitled to push all that crap on me over and over again? They're using all kind of tricks like a mandatory permission requests and if they don't get it then they would cripple your device like a smartwatch for example, depriving you of the watch ability to function normally.
That's OK, the lesson learned – I'm going to use my active watch 2 at the minimal capacity now, w/o the Health app - what's left on the watch is good enough for me, I'm still able to monitor my heartbeat rate to know if I can push myself harder while biking or 'power' walking.
Anyway, right now I'm flagships free! Yay! I'm left with my Pixel 4a5G which I'm liking a lot but I'll be looking for some other high end, quality phone. Galaxy S21 U is a superior device right now no doubts about it, though it has some issues: battery life and a lack of sufficient heat dissipation – those are the two top negative ones imo. Will see, but right now my hope goes to 2022 with better than 888SOC.
Experia 1 III/5 III at first looked promising then the pic samples came in and killed it for me, same SOC and it runs hot as well, supposedly.
Too bad that Sony, a camera powerhouse makes so disappointing phone cameras, it's a shame. I'll tell everyone who feels offended by my above opinion: go take a good look at the low-light pictures.
ps.Got a really good money for my 16/512GB S21 U that puts me way ahead of the usual Samsung trade-in quotas, apparently it's a hot item right now, considered to be a “rare find”.

mzsquared said:
Gonna miss the camera though, but sadly that's pretty much it for a $1300 device. Most of my frustration lately regarding this phone is about an excessive amount of advertising on part of Samsung.
I was getting constantly interrupted with adds prompting me to do this or that or, to consider some of their(Samsung) ideas with apps that would “enhance my Samsung experience” etc...etc... I mean, what is this? They don't own my phone, I paid for it so why do they think they're entitled to push all that crap on me over and over again? They're using all kind of tricks like a mandatory permission requests and if they don't get it then they would cripple your device like a smartwatch for example, depriving you of the watch ability to function normally.
That's OK, the lesson learned – I'm going to use my active watch 2 at the minimal capacity now, w/o the Health app - what's left on the watch is good enough for me, I'm still able to monitor my heartbeat rate to know if I can push myself harder while biking or 'power' walking.
Anyway, right now I'm flagships free! Yay! I'm left with my Pixel 4a5G which I'm liking a lot but I'll be looking for some other high end, quality phone. Galaxy S21 U is a superior device right now no doubts about it, though it has some issues: battery life and a lack of sufficient heat dissipation – those are the two top negative ones imo. Will see, but right now my hope goes to 2022 with better than 888SOC.
Experia 1 III/5 III at first looked promising then the pic samples came in and killed it for me, same SOC and it runs hot as well, supposedly.
Too bad that Sony, a camera powerhouse makes so disappointing phone cameras, it's a shame. I'll tell everyone who feels offended by my above opinion: go take a good look at the low-light pictures.
ps.Got a really good money for my 16/512GB S21 U that puts me way ahead of the usual Samsung trade-in quotas, apparently it's a hot item right now, considered to be a “rare find”.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wish you all the best buddy. Hope you find a device you like. The Pixels are just around the corner so they may be worth waiting for. Every other flagship is running on the same nuclear reactor.

You just have to know what options to select in order to avoid any advertising.
I have a US unlocked-from-samsung S21U and I don't see any ads because I when setting up the device and when going to samsung.com (my account page), I made sure to turn off all ads and marketing. Plus, I went to their CCPA page to turn everything off as well.

mzsquared said:
Gonna miss the camera though, but sadly that's pretty much it for a $1300 device. Most of my frustration lately regarding this phone is about an excessive amount of advertising on part of Samsung.
I was getting constantly interrupted with adds prompting me to do this or that or, to consider some of their(Samsung) ideas with apps that would “enhance my Samsung experience” etc...etc... I mean, what is this? They don't own my phone, I paid for it so why do they think they're entitled to push all that crap on me over and over again? They're using all kind of tricks like a mandatory permission requests and if they don't get it then they would cripple your device like a smartwatch for example, depriving you of the watch ability to function normally.
That's OK, the lesson learned – I'm going to use my active watch 2 at the minimal capacity now, w/o the Health app - what's left on the watch is good enough for me, I'm still able to monitor my heartbeat rate to know if I can push myself harder while biking or 'power' walking.
Anyway, right now I'm flagships free! Yay! I'm left with my Pixel 4a5G which I'm liking a lot but I'll be looking for some other high end, quality phone. Galaxy S21 U is a superior device right now no doubts about it, though it has some issues: battery life and a lack of sufficient heat dissipation – those are the two top negative ones imo. Will see, but right now my hope goes to 2022 with better than 888SOC.
Experia 1 III/5 III at first looked promising then the pic samples came in and killed it for me, same SOC and it runs hot as well, supposedly.
Too bad that Sony, a camera powerhouse makes so disappointing phone cameras, it's a shame. I'll tell everyone who feels offended by my above opinion: go take a good look at the low-light pictures.
ps.Got a really good money for my 16/512GB S21 U that puts me way ahead of the usual Samsung trade-in quotas, apparently it's a hot item right now, considered to be a “rare find”.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish I could disagree with you on more points, but for the most part you nailed it.
Not getting any kind of ads here, cleaned most of the garbage with adb, fiddled with power saving and the likes until I'm at a point where I can live with this phone long term.
It all depends on your use case...so far it fits mine,but that doesn't mean it doesn't drive me insane for not being able to get my trusty email client check my work mail every 30 min during day. It does it at 31, 45, 56.....anyone's guess between 30-59 min. That's with an app excempt from battery management, no power saving, etc.
So yea...far from perfect for 1200$....fortunately I paid a lot less so that lessens the pain.

enigmaamit said:
Wish you all the best buddy. Hope you find a device you like. The Pixels are just around the corner so they may be worth waiting for. Every other flagship is running on the same nuclear reactor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I am fine w/ 4a5G, was using it more then S21U as a phone, but for pics & vids there is no comparison between these two with the range of things cameras could do. Will see what kind of a promise they'll paint for us in a bright colors before new models release and how it's going to look like in the real life.

nixnixnixnix4 said:
You just have to know what options to select in order to avoid any advertising.
I have a US unlocked-from-samsung S21U and I don't see any ads because I when setting up the device and when going to samsung.com (my account page), I made sure to turn off all ads and marketing. Plus, I went to their CCPA page to turn everything off as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ipse_Tase said:
I wish I could disagree with you on more points, but for the most part you nailed it.
Not getting any kind of ads here, cleaned most of the garbage with adb, fiddled with power saving and the likes until I'm at a point where I can live with this phone long term.
It all depends on your use case...so far it fits mine,but that doesn't mean it doesn't drive me insane for not being able to get my trusty email client check my work mail every 30 min during day. It does it at 31, 45, 56.....anyone's guess between 30-59 min. That's with an app excempt from battery management, no power saving, etc.
So yea...far from perfect for 1200$....fortunately I paid a lot less so that lessens the pain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was blocking some of that but they(Samsung,Google) have their sleeves full of tricks anyway. If I didn't have the watch I would probably never go to Samsung store. With the watch and their sh**load of widgets and apps they get you to visit that store anyways like 'a must go to the XIX Century company store'.

Samsung has really taken a dumpster dive this year, obviously following Android Android 11's lead in a full afterburner high G flat spin, crush depth crash dive down the perverbial toilet.

mzsquared said:
Gonna miss the camera though, but sadly that's pretty much it for a $1300 device. Most of my frustration lately regarding this phone is about an excessive amount of advertising on part of Samsung.
I was getting constantly interrupted with adds prompting me to do this or that or, to consider some of their(Samsung) ideas with apps that would “enhance my Samsung experience” etc...etc... I mean, what is this? They don't own my phone, I paid for it so why do they think they're entitled to push all that crap on me over and over again? They're using all kind of tricks like a mandatory permission requests and if they don't get it then they would cripple your device like a smartwatch for example, depriving you of the watch ability to function normally.
That's OK, the lesson learned – I'm going to use my active watch 2 at the minimal capacity now, w/o the Health app - what's left on the watch is good enough for me, I'm still able to monitor my heartbeat rate to know if I can push myself harder while biking or 'power' walking.
Anyway, right now I'm flagships free! Yay! I'm left with my Pixel 4a5G which I'm liking a lot but I'll be looking for some other high end, quality phone. Galaxy S21 U is a superior device right now no doubts about it, though it has some issues: battery life and a lack of sufficient heat dissipation – those are the two top negative ones imo. Will see, but right now my hope goes to 2022 with better than 888SOC.
Experia 1 III/5 III at first looked promising then the pic samples came in and killed it for me, same SOC and it runs hot as well, supposedly.
Too bad that Sony, a camera powerhouse makes so disappointing phone cameras, it's a shame. I'll tell everyone who feels offended by my above opinion: go take a good look at the low-light pictures.
ps.Got a really good money for my 16/512GB S21 U that puts me way ahead of the usual Samsung trade-in quotas, apparently it's a hot item right now, considered to be a “rare find”.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you first the get phone you can opt out of all advertising from Samsung / Google. You can also go to the settings and stop the advertising as well if you didn't opt out.
I also have 0 ads on my S21 ultra 512gb

blackhawk said:
Samsung has really taken a dumpster dive this year, obviously following Android Android 11's lead in a full afterburner high G flat spin, crush depth crash dive down the perverbial toilet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, each generation of 'flagships' brings new wave of marketing hype stirred up by manufacturers being quick to avertise upcoming developments in technology. No doubt a progress is happening, but the end products based on those new advances don't always deliver the goods as promised: “oh yes, this year we'll put a fantastic SoC into your phone, 5nm node – lightning fast and able to run at 20% less power then the previous one” --- wait a minute, that's great but you said exactly same words about 7nm and 10nm before that. So, comparing the power usage demands, S21 should be using only about 40% of the required CPU power needed to run Galaxy 8? Why are the batteries bigger now but lasting less and why can't you get a better control of devices heat?

chungdae said:
When you first the get phone you can opt out of all advertising from Samsung / Google. You can also go to the settings and stop the advertising as well if you didn't opt out.
I also have 0 ads on my S21 ultra 512gb
Click to expand...
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How often do you go to the Galaxy Store?

mzsquared said:
How often do you go to the Galaxy Store?
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Every morning to update apps. I don't have any ads beyond that. Same as the Google play store

mzsquared said:
Yup, each generation of 'flagships' brings new wave of marketing hype stirred up by manufacturers being quick to avertise upcoming developments in technology. No doubt a progress is happening, but the end products based on those new advances don't always deliver the goods as promised: “oh yes, this year we'll put a fantastic SoC into your phone, 5nm node – lightning fast and able to run at 20% less power then the previous one” --- wait a minute, that's great but you said exactly same words about 7nm and 10nm before that. So, comparing the power usage demands, S21 should be using only about 40% of the required CPU power needed to run Galaxy 8? Why are the batteries bigger now but lasting less and why can't you get a better control of devices heat?
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There's faster memory and CPU but it's weighted down by the useless scoped storage and a more bloated OS. The MS/Intel paradox
My Note 10+ running on Pie get about 8%@hr battery usage on it's 4300mAh battery when browsing, 10% streaming vids.
No scoped storage so even with it's slower hardware... how much slower is it? It probably uses less battery as well. In actual use the 10+ doesn't lag and runs fast without getting hot unless it's a really CPU intensive task.
It's 96F out and I'm in the shade with a fan; my battery temperature is 95F. It's at least 92F where I'm sitting.
I can't afford the liability of a hot running device throttling back because it's system is a hog running needless CPU cycles to emulate Apple's lame scope storage ideas.
Gookill Android, the new green Apple

mzsquared said:
How often do you go to the Galaxy Store?
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I do it once every month or two. I'd never do it if the Galaxy apks didn't "time out". Sometimes Samsung screws them up with their lame graphics. Idiots.

mzsquared said:
How often do you go to the Galaxy Store?
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Use the shortcut to update your apps. Don't go to the main store.

never had a heating issue with mine and battery alot better than rivals as i have oneplus 9 pro and that what you call heating issues the phone disables itself till it cools down, for me best phone out there is s21u although i have 512gb 16gb version

mzsquared said:
Gonna miss the camera though, but sadly that's pretty much it for a $1300 device. Most of my frustration lately regarding this phone is about an excessive amount of advertising on part of Samsung.
I was getting constantly interrupted with adds prompting me to do this or that or, to consider some of their(Samsung) ideas with apps that would “enhance my Samsung experience” etc...etc... I mean, what is this? They don't own my phone, I paid for it so why do they think they're entitled to push all that crap on me over and over again? They're using all kind of tricks like a mandatory permission requests and if they don't get it then they would cripple your device like a smartwatch for example, depriving you of the watch ability to function normally.
That's OK, the lesson learned – I'm going to use my active watch 2 at the minimal capacity now, w/o the Health app - what's left on the watch is good enough for me, I'm still able to monitor my heartbeat rate to know if I can push myself harder while biking or 'power' walking.
Anyway, right now I'm flagships free! Yay! I'm left with my Pixel 4a5G which I'm liking a lot but I'll be looking for some other high end, quality phone. Galaxy S21 U is a superior device right now no doubts about it, though it has some issues: battery life and a lack of sufficient heat dissipation – those are the two top negative ones imo. Will see, but right now my hope goes to 2022 with better than 888SOC.
Experia 1 III/5 III at first looked promising then the pic samples came in and killed it for me, same SOC and it runs hot as well, supposedly.
Too bad that Sony, a camera powerhouse makes so disappointing phone cameras, it's a shame. I'll tell everyone who feels offended by my above opinion: go take a good look at the low-light pictures.
ps.Got a really good money for my 16/512GB S21 U that puts me way ahead of the usual Samsung trade-in quotas, apparently it's a hot item right now, considered to be a “rare find”.
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Your Pixel 4a can also easily install CalyxOS, which you might like if you value privacy and never want to see an ad again

Thank you all for kind words, I owe you an update on this subject: I've re-loaded!!! I'm back with a new s21U, I really need the camera on me, I spend a lot of time outdoors observing Nature(the only and truly positive result of covid) and there is no substitute for this phone camera ois zoom, I have decent 'regular' camera but can't use it for calling/texting/music etc... this phone pretty much does it all.
I'm trying to get rid of the bloat annoyance , didn't even sign-up to my Samsung account on this phone, though I've been using Buds pro and watch active 2 - everything works(w/ limitations - that's ok) I'll check for updates once a month maybe and that's all. I de-bloated most of Samsung related apps, no need to be spreading all the permissions more then once after Google already has it.
So, my current Samsung status reads: Underground

Google phones don't even support native dual / parallel apps. Rubbish.