Database Develop

Screen dust?

Ive noticed i have a small fleck of dust (which i find very very irritating). Anyone else got similar? Its most likely a dust flake between the digitizer and the screen as it moves relative to the image underneath. Sure it wasnt there when i bought it.

I've had mine since November and there is no dust under my screen unlike my iPhone 3G that I cleaned only a couple of months ago!

In the daylight i can see its a very white fleck under the digitiser. Very disappointed with this tab so far, slow, buggy and badly built. Such a shame as i love my Galaxy S2.

rovex said:
In the daylight i can see its a very white fleck under the digitiser. Very disappointed with this tab so far, slow, buggy and badly built. Such a shame as i love my Galaxy S2.
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Half the stuff i've seen you moan about I do not have any issue with at all.
I would suggest you stick to your phone or just go buy an ipad as nothing will keep you satisfied.
No doubt you would have lot's to moan about with them as well.
My brother has 2 ipads and I still prefer my Tab 8.9 over them.
I'm running stock with Go Launcher and no problems here from my side. It runs as I would expect it too and it is an addition to my phone and pc, not a replacement of either.

Hate to say it, but choccy31 is right. You make 8.9 appear a lot worse than it is. It's not slow or buggy, with the latest CM9 ICS it's smooth enough and without problems. It's not badly built, you having dust under the screen does not mean we all have it. If you don't like it, you can always sell it, why keep it when everything is wrong with it?

choccy31 said:
Half the stuff i've seen you moan about I do not have any issue with at all.
I would suggest you stick to your phone or just go buy an ipad as nothing will keep you satisfied.
No doubt you would have lot's to moan about with them as well.
My brother has 2 ipads and I still prefer my Tab 8.9 over them.
I'm running stock with Go Launcher and no problems here from my side. It runs as I would expect it too and it is an addition to my phone and pc, not a replacement of either.
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I'm glad someone else agrees..
Sent from my Incredible 2 using xda premium

Im sooo sorry i have upset you all, but the thing is rubbish. Its the worst Android device i have used by some way and ive used a lot. Im not the only one complaining about its speed it IS slow, fact there is no debate. Poor video that surprised me even knowing the Tegra limitations. Micro-stutter, lag, jerking. Maybe ill put up some comparison videos between the tab and the S2 and you will see what i mean. If it was cheap it wouldnt be so bad, but Sammy wanted £400 for this?? glad i didnt pay that.
I wont be getting an 'iPad' because its Apple and automatically fails, but i may well sell this on, swallow the loss and get something better. I should have gone with the Zoom, which is getting good support and is much smoother.

So go and sell it already. I dunno what Tab meets your requirements though, I guess the Transformer Prime is probably the closest you can get to the iPad in build and performance. Can't really think of any others that perform particularly better than this one, or that I can guarantee won't get dust (oh sh-------ttttt!!!!) under the screen.
its Apple and automatically fails
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Credibility = gone.

Why credibility gone? I hate the look of iOS which i think is very dull and I find Apple a horrible company. I buy Samsung to support free trade and as a protest to the way apple thinks it can limit choice by suing everyone over idiotic patents it should never have been granted.
The TF prime is better, but its not about raw power, its about optimization. There is no reason this tab needs to be so slow when the xoom isnt or even the Advent Vega!
Im going to wait for a real ICS ROM and see, by that time i may have got over the dust disappointment, but if it doesnt speed up its going.
You seem to think im asking to much for a tab to be able to actually function without stuttering, well i dont think i am. Im used to the slight Android stutter, but this is WAY beyond that. If i drag my finger slowly from screen to screen its smooth until it gets to about 40% of the way across, at which point it starts to stutter, however slowly i swipe. My S2 doesnt do that, even my Desire didnt, even my friends Wildfire doesnt and that has a 600mhz single core CPU.

rovex said:
Why credibility gone? I hate the look of iOS which i think is very dull and I find Apple a horrible company. I buy Samsung to support free trade and as a protest to the way apple thinks it can limit choice by suing everyone over idiotic patents it should never have been granted.
The TF prime is better, but its not about raw power, its about optimization. There is no reason this tab needs to be so slow when the xoom isnt or even the Advent Vega!
Im going to wait for a real ICS ROM and see, by that time i may have got over the dust disappointment, but if it doesnt speed up its going.
You seem to think im asking to much for a tab to be able to actually function without stuttering, well i dont think i am. Im used to the slight Android stutter, but this is WAY beyond that. If i drag my finger slowly from screen to screen its smooth until it gets to about 40% of the way across, at which point it starts to stutter, however slowly i swipe. My S2 doesnt do that, even my Desire didnt, even my friends Wildfire doesnt and that has a 600mhz single core CPU.
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Your Desire didn't? Hmm....as for being markedly worse than the Xoom with TW removed to make the OS more equivalent the performance is the same.
In any case it's hardly fair to compare the 8.9 to the S2 when the latter runs at a lower sub-HD resolution and isn't capable of displaying multiple large widgets. The 8.9 is quite up to HD video play back but then how is that worse than the S2?
I don't think anyone is saying that it's too much to ask for it to function without stuttering but it seems most, including myself, do not see the level of problems you appear to see. The example you give of stuttering at 40% swipe, I really don't see my home screens pause for fractions of a second as I swipe between them; it continues to move smoothly all the way in line with my finger movement.

Its smooth without widgets, but not with them. The more i use, the slower it gets. My S2 is running 6 full screen scrollable widgets, its has no slow down whatsoever. Sure WVGA makes life easier, but the Galaxy note is also smooth with ICS, that is HD and has the same CPU (in most markets). Tablet widgets are no bigger than phone ones., and even if they were the Tab struggles with the same ones my S2 has no issues with, even if they are smaller!
Ive given up using widgets now and it makes the device much nicer to use, but it seems like a waste of the larger screen.
For what its worth i have no issues with gaming.
The Note and S2 will both decode full rate 1080P blu-ray files, the tegra struggles with heavily reduced rate 720P. I have a copy of 'Drive' in 720P on my Laptop, S2 and Tab, the tab stutters and pauses, the others are smooth as silk.

You seem to be forgetting that the CPU and GPU in SGS 2 are more powerful than the Tegra 2 solution. Include also that more powerful device is running on a lower resolution screen, add the a lot more optimized ICS version for SGS 2, and you can clearly see the end result.
Is 8.9 perfectly smooth at this point? No, maybe it will never be, even with official ICS. I doubt we will see the improvement with buggy TouchWiz slapped on it, but at least devs will get some good stuff from it, like camera drivers and kernel. You can just hope for the best, or sell the tablet and purchase another more powerful model, something with Tegra 3 perhaps. We all know what's wrong with this model, we don't need someone to point it out.
High profile 720p and 1080p are just not doable on Tegra 2 solutions, it was like that from the start, there is nothing we can do to make it play nice without stuttering. I do get a decent framerate with DicePlayer on 1.4 GHz with some 720p movies, but not for long, on certain scenes it just becomes choppy. It's choppiest when you start the movie, but if you leave that tablet like that, and not swipe around, it gets better and better, only to be choppy again when more demanding scene comes up.
It is a shame, great screen going to waste, but if i sell it now, i don't know what tablet i would get to replace it. Transformer Prime is not cheap, i would need to add more money to get it, but i just love the form factor on this one. It's a difficult decision, and when the Tegra 3 tablets get their prices slashed, this thing will be even harder to sell.

Im not forgetting anything. My point is that if Tegra is so bad, it should never have been used in a top end device. I only paid £279 for mine, but if i paid the full £399 launch price i would be very upset.
The TF Prime still uses Tegra, the '3' isnt much better, as far as i can see its still broken, they are just throwing more broken cores at the problem in an attempt to fix it.
Its acceptable for now, but i still dont see why it should stutter with hardware acceleration enabled.

rovex said:
Its smooth without widgets, but not with them. The more i use, the slower it gets. My S2 is running 6 full screen scrollable widgets, its has no slow down whatsoever. Sure WVGA makes life easier, but the Galaxy note is also smooth with ICS, that is HD and has the same CPU (in most markets). Tablet widgets are no bigger than phone ones., and even if they were the Tab struggles with the same ones my S2 has no issues with, even if they are smaller!
Ive given up using widgets now and it makes the device much nicer to use, but it seems like a waste of the larger screen.
For what its worth i have no issues with gaming.
The Note and S2 will both decode full rate 1080P blu-ray files, the tegra struggles with heavily reduced rate 720P. I have a copy of 'Drive' in 720P on my Laptop, S2 and Tab, the tab stutters and pauses, the others are smooth as silk.
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Widgets are the same size? 1 full screen widget on the 8.9 carries over twice as much information as 1 full screen widget on the S2.
How does Dual-core 1.4 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 in the Note equate to Dual-core 1GHz Cortex-A9 in the 8.9?
As for decoding, I would say that the almost double resolution on the 8.9 vs the S2 is a factor aside from CPU difference.
You say the Note is fine and is that from your own experience?

rovex said:
Why credibility gone? I hate the look of iOS which i think is very dull and I find Apple a horrible company. I buy Samsung to support free trade and as a protest to the way apple thinks it can limit choice by suing everyone over idiotic patents it should never have been granted.
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Because it means you aren't judging something objectively... Samsung have been attempting these crazy law suits too, and they did get their name in the smartphone/tablet market by being as close to Apple as possible... TouchWiz for Android 2 is basically Android hacked to look and act more like iOS and the phones up until S2 were all designed to look like iPhone alternatives (look how the Galaxy S is the iPhone 3GS and then the Galaxy Ace is the iPhone 4...), and the people who design the devices and the legal departments are completely unrelated, it's not like each company is some dude who makes every decision.
rovex said:
or even the Advent Vega!
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I had an Advent Vega... Doesn't even begin to compare to this thing... Was fun for modding but to actually use it was a POS... I mean come on, if you're into modding you can put an unfinished homebrew HoneyComb/ICS on it which doesn't support the camera (lol, the nasty VGA thing) or if not you can run the ridiculous stock ROM with inch-thick navigation bar... The accelerometer doesn't even work right. I think I can put up with choppy homescreen transitions...
You seem to think im asking to much for a tab to be able to actually function without stuttering, well i dont think i am.
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Not at all, we just can't understand why you don't rid yourself of it and get something else if it makes you so mad. We want you to be happy with whatever device you get but at the same time we don't want to be shouted about at how crappy stuff that we like supposedly is.
Im used to the slight Android stutter, but this is WAY beyond that. If i drag my finger slowly from screen to screen its smooth until it gets to about 40% of the way across, at which point it starts to stutter, however slowly i swipe.
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Ah yes, I know what you mean. The homescreens move with my finger but they do lose framerate. Never been important to me as homescreens are, erm, they're just to get you into the apps, and you only swipe between them when you want to see your other widgets/icons, it's not like a frequent thing. I find it stutters a LOT worse when using some live wallpapers, make sure you don't use one of them. A lot of the Honeycomb devices I've used do this though. There aren't many I've seen to run the homescreens smoothly without modding. I mean, for me, it's one of the best Android tablets I've used, the form factor, performance (for the size & weight), screen, etc. all come together really nicely. It's only the homescreen that doesn't seem smooth for me...
Have you tried overclocking? I've heard that can fix the issue. I read somewhere that the homescreens don't use hardware acceleration on this tab.
It's HoneyComb's silly 3D screens thing, the way swiping between them has that unnecessary 3D effect, I mean seriously, what is the practical use of that, it uses way more resources and also affects the intuitiveness of using a touch screen (when you keep things "flat", it creates the feeling of sliding something under your fingers, when the 3D comes in it separates it and feels more like minority report 'gestures'), it seems to be pointless showing off and causes a lot of the stuttering on Android tabs.
Also, have you considered giving the Galaxy Tab 10.1 a try? I've read that it runs better and is more compatible. For me no tabs compare to the Samsung ones in design, weight, etc., the performance isn't perfect but it's the kind of sacrifice you make to get something impossibly thin and light.
My S2 doesnt do that, even my Desire didnt, even my friends Wildfire doesnt and that has a 600mhz single core CPU.
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Yeah but these are all Android 2 devices which run at 800x480...

I never claimed to be objective, i despise Apple, and im very happy to say why. The galaxys look like an evolution of older Sammy phones and the Tabs look like large versions of them. They didnt copy Apple, call it 'convergent evolution' if you must. Apple are being patent trolls, they started it, the others need to finish it.
I love the look of the 8.9, its lovely, i just want the excessive stutter gone. homescreens are important to Android, its not just about the apps.
I know the Vega is rubbish, but it still manages to be smoother than the Tab.. Thats really sad.
Lower res phones should be smoother yes, but the Galaxy Note is smoother as well, that has the same res. The Xoom is smoother, in fact the 8.9 is the worst T2 powered tab ive used. What i want is ICS with Apex launcher than is smooth and jitter free. A pause or 2 i can handle, but not the gritty jerky laggy mess it currently is. It makes it feel so cheap and low end.
As for the dust, i used a statically charged plastic rod, and managed to make the fleck 'jump' off screen, behind the bezel i guess. It may return but its gone or now.

rovex said:
I never claimed to be objective, i despise Apple, and im very happy to say why. The galaxys look like an evolution of older Sammy phones and the Tabs look like large versions of them. They didnt copy Apple, call it 'convergent evolution' if you must. Apple are being patent trolls, they started it, the others need to finish it.
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Well, it's not even worth getting into here, but it's still just a company, no need to take it personally, they all do these same things and our tablets wouldn't exist if iPad didn't, and wouldn't be half as great if they weren't competing with it.
homescreens are important to Android, its not just about the apps.
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But why? What can you actually do on a homescreen?
I know the Vega is rubbish, but it still manages to be smoother than the Tab.. Thats really sad.
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Well, only if you mod the crap out of it, and I'm sure you can mod this tab to run better if you overclock it and use the right ROMs and stuff...
Lower res phones should be smoother yes, but the Galaxy Note is smoother as well, that has the same res.
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And it's running Gingerbread.
The Xoom is smoother
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And bigger, and heavier.
As for the dust, i used a statically charged plastic rod, and managed to make the fleck 'jump' off screen, behind the bezel i guess. It may return but its gone or now.
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Good idea! If it comes back you can just do it again. Great thinking though.

Android has widgets, iOS doesnt. iOS's interface is just a basic list of apps. Android has so much more, yes widgets are apps in a sense i suppose, but they are interactive. If their performance is very poor it ruins the experience. Most apps perform ok in themselves, but the homescreen is the face of the device and it must be smooth.
Yes the Vega must be modded to be smooth, but i standby what i said. A Stock Vega is better than a stock 8.9, and ive done everything i can to make this smooth (ROMs, kernels, overclocks, tweaks), its still slower than a modded Vega.
The Note has ICS now and it destroys the 8.9 with ICS builds. The 8.9 feels like a 500mhz single core unit next to a Note. The Note running GB previously doesnt explain why its faster, it should mean its slower!
The Xoom might be heavier but it has no 'performance enhancing' extras that the 8.9 doesnt have, in fact the 8.9 has faster RAM, or at least a better implemented memory subsystem. Its still manages to be slower.
I simply dont accept the answer 'Blame Honeycomb'. If ICS fixes the issues then i believe Samsung must have changed something else, some limitation or previous decision that was hindering the unit.

Tegra2 for whatever reason is a horrible CPU. I've used a few omap4 tablets and they just seem way smoother than tegra2. I mean a tegra 3 is finally smooth but nvidias cpus seem to be "on paper" good but real world bad each generation. Seem like they come out first with a spec set but poorly implemented once competitors are out. I mean the snapdragon s4 quad will probably destroy tegra 3

The S4 duals beat the T3!
I knew Tegra was old and slow, but i did think that maybe Samsung would have made the best of the bad CPU, it seems they have made the worst of it.

Superfluous Nexus 7 Review

Google Nexus 7
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Android phones first hit the scene in 2008 with the G1. Compared to the venerable Windows Mobile and Blackberry platforms, and the new iPhone, Android was primitive to say the least. Slowly, and steadily, Android has grown to a full-fledged operating system. In February, 2011, not even a year and a half ago, the first true Android tablet was released. It was the Motorola Xoom and was the first device to see the Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" operating system. Probably the best we can say about the original Xoom was that... it did the minimum that was expected of it. It had good specs- a dual core CPU, a gig of RAM, and a 720p screen. But, it was twitchy, laggy, and personally, I found it annoying. It was also thick, heavy, and amazingly, cost MORE than the Apple iPad. It was a recipe for disaster.
Let's fast forward to 2012. Honeycomb is gone. It was replaced with a streamlined OS called Ice Cream Sandwich. Suddenly, older tablets started screaming the way we all wanted. But, that's still not 2012. Today, we have Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean". Using the Ice Cream Sandwich underpinnings, everything has been further refined and optimized. Google had "Project Butter" specifically deal with making the OS as smooth and lag-free as possible. And they succeeded. Introduced first on the Google Nexus 7, our first look at Jelly Bean is impressive. It's as smooth as was promised and finally can go toe-to-toe with iOS... and come out ahead in many areas.
Google has had their own branded phones for years with varying degrees of success, and now they have their own tablet, the Nexus 7. Anything else you hear about this tablet falls secondary to this fact: This tablet was meant to beat the Amazon Kindle Fire. The Fire was the first true commercial success for any Android tablet. The problem was, it's barely recognizable as one. Most Google apps are gone or buried, there's no access to the Google Play app market, and the whole device is geared to get you to spend money at Amazon. Google makes no money on a platform like that, so enter the Nexus 7.
The Nexus 7 is thinner, lighter, and has a better screen. The Fire has no camera, has a weaker processor, and what's essentially a modified phone operating system. The Nexus beats it in about every measurable category.
Specifications:
DIMENSIONS
98.5 x 120 x 10.45 mm
340g
SCREEN
IPS LCD
1280x800 resolution
Multitouch
Corning scratch-resistant Glass
PROCESSOR
Quad Core Tegra 3- 4 cores @ 1.3Ghz, 1 low consumption core @ 500Mhz
NVidia GeForce 12-core GPU
MEMORY
1gb RAM
16gb internal (13.5gb useable)
CAMERA
1.2mp front-facing camera
PORTS
Headset
Micro USB
Battery
4325mAh
MISCELLANEOUS
Bluetooth 4.0
Stereo Speakers
GPS
WiFi 802.11 b, g, n, a
Accelerometer
The Nexus 7 is comfortable to hold and is light enough for extended reading in bed. The edges are rounded and the back has a rubber-like coating that makes for an easy grip. Remember- this is an Android e-reader first and all else secondary. The LCD screen is bright and has a good pixel density. Since e-reading is a primary function, I'll talk about that first. Like most Android devices, you get Play Books from Google. But, you can also get the Kindle and Nook apps as well, so you're not limited to one format. There's even other programs out there like Aldiko that are good for reading generic .pdf books, too. Turning the brightness down to about 75% gives a comfortable reading experience and the text is crisp in all the readers I've tried.
OK, here's some downsides. It's designed to compete with the Fire and doesn't really try to go that far beyond it. You have a choice of 8gb or 16gb. That's not much storage in todays world. I suppose they're really trying to push cloud storage, but you're not always near a wifi hotspot. Worse, there's no micro-SDXC slot to expand your storage. Also lacking is the HDMI port that Android users have come to expect. It's really great to plug your phone or tablet into a TV at a hotel and watch your own media. Not happening on the Nexus 7. For some inexplicable reason, Google forces the tablet into portrait display mode at all times unless some app calls for a landscape view. Yes, even video and picture viewing. The camera? Front facing, and no app to take a picture. It's usable by most video calling programs- Google, Skype, etc, but you can't snap a picture. Not a big deal, but it is odd. Lastly, when really putting the Tegra 3 throug it's paces, the back does get very warm. Not hot, but warm enough for you to tell it's getting a workout.
But the plusses... there are a lot. The device, manufactured for Google by Asus, feels very solid. No creaks or snaps, no flexing, it just feels solid. Integrated into the design is a smart cover feature- a magnet sensor that will shut off the screen when a "smart case" (that contains a small magnet at a strategic location) closes and turns it back on when the case opens. The video player is awkward in Portrait, so I don't use it. MX Player is fantastic and offers hardware and software acceleration. It plays all formats thrown at it. Anyway, video is crisp and without lag or stutter. Battery life is great. You'll average about 9+ hours and that should take you through a full days use and then some. The speakers are loud enough to hear without straining and the sound is decent for what it is. It sounds great through headphones. Gone is the old reliable Android Browser. Chrome is now the preferred web app. It's fast and integrates with your desktop settings, saved bookmarks, etc. Then, there's the wifi... I have NEVER seen reception this powerful on any device. I can go anywhere inside and stay connected... that's expected. What's more, I'm seeing strong signals I've never seen before. It's a little piece of terrific. And when tethered to my phone, gets the same great 4g speeds.
Jelly Bean- It's very much a matured OS. Beyond the silky-smoothness, there's some great new features... some came with Ice Cream Sandwich, some with Jelly Bean. Face unlock has been refined. Originally, you could trick it by putting a picture in front of the camera. Now, there's the option for it to withold unlocking until it tells that you blinked! Google's Voice Search has advanced a great deal. Google's had voice input and search since 2009, and it's never been bad, but with all the press and ad revenue Apple's Siri has received, Google knew they had to step up their game. Google's voice search now answers in a very human, non-computerized voice. And the answers are literally twice as fast as Siri's. When it doesn't have an exact answer, like when there's a range of answers, it doesn't ask you if you want to search... it just gives you the results. Navigator has been updated with the same natural voice, too. And speaking of that, Google Maps now allows you to cache a pretty large area for offline mapping. Being it's a wifi-only device, this is extra handy.
There's all sorts of throw-ins when you buy a Nexus 7. The biggest is $25 credit at the Google Play app market. In case you needed inspiration to gouge out your eyes and ears, they threw in a complimentary/punitive copy of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. I guess if you're traveling with kids and they act up, you could force them to watch it instead of something good. They also threw in 20 complete songs in a variety of styles. Some recognizeable, some new and kinda neat, and some quickly eraseable rap songs.
Benchmarks are great. The powerhouse CPU/GPU combination takes everything you throw at it in stride.
So, what am I going to do with this thing? I have no idea. It's fun, it's a great size, but it's not for someone who wants a complete tablet experience. The lack of storage alone sees to that. At best, it will be a secondary device, but unlike a full-on tablet, you're going to rely on a smart phone more when you carry the Nexus 7 around. I'll take it to work and see how it is for wiring diagrams and flowcharts, so stay tuned. I'm either going to give it to my folks or make it an extended loan. Mom's somewhat Android-savvy, having had 2 Android slider smart phones. Dad's completely technophobic, so I want to see how he likes things like the NFL and ESPN apps. Regardless, they're going on a cruise along with a flight to Europe and back, so this will certainly help matters.
So, it's a nice tablet in a great package. Not unlike the Apple ecosystem, if you're OK with the limitations of the environment, you'll have a great experience. If you want a fully expandable complete tablet experience, you might want to look at a Samsung Galaxy mini tablet instead. The Nexus 7 is priced at $199.99 for the 8gb version and $249.99 for the 16gb model. It's available at https://play.google.com/ and at retailers like GameStop, Sams Club, Staples, Office Max, and others. Availability is very limited now, but within a couple weeks everyone should be stocked up.

:good: Archer likes this!

Great review! I'm excited to get my hands on mine this week. I bought it primarily for reading as my retina iPad is a little too big for comfortable reading. I also got it for the development community that will certainly filling in the small holes that Google and ASUS surely left due to either cost or other reasons. Still, after a year with the Xoom and TPrime I have to say this is the first Android tablet I've actually been excited about. I grabbed the 8GB version as I won't be playing much games (I will use the iPad for that, plus I just don't play many games and I have my trusty 360 and new Vita for those purposes). It will be more of a simple web browser, twitter, small amounts of Google+, and more importantly, like I mentioned above, an eReader. I'm sure I will miss the storage space, but then again I didn't even use 6GBs on my Xoom or Prime especially since all my 40GB of music lives in the Google Music cloud. This will be my go to device for bringing to work and I can leave my very expensive and kind of irraplaceable retina iPad safely at home.
Thanks for the review!

Is that Babou???
Good review, thanks for being honest and not completely sided on it like some reviews have been.

"For some inexplicable reason, Google forces the tablet into portrait display mode at all times unless some app calls for a landscape view. Yes, even video and picture viewing."
Not true at all. If you're having problems rotating it, disable screen rotation lock from the notification menu. Just about everything will rotate at that point (not the stock launcher).

firehazard said:
"For some inexplicable reason, Google forces the tablet into portrait display mode at all times unless some app calls for a landscape view. Yes, even video and picture viewing."
Not true at all. If you're having problems rotating it, disable screen rotation lock from the notification menu. Just about everything will rotate at that point (not the stock launcher).
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Haaaa... that's terrific. Thanks.

:good: Wee baby Seamus likes this!

could you please run androbench and post the results here? want to know if this device suffers from IO problems like all other Asus tablets!

Good job with your review, I found it balanced and informative. It would be nice if you made a followup about general UI performance at some point. I know it's supposed to be rather speedy, but I have found mixed verdicts on the forums. It would also be nice if someone made a review from a dev's standpoint (maybe I will ), but overall excellent work!
---------- Post added at 04:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:28 PM ----------
Tempie007 said:
could you please run androbench and post the results here? want to know if this device suffers from IO problems like all other Asus tablets!
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Based on the quadrant benchmark, it seems to suffer from some amount of I/O deficiency, which I have learned the hard way can be quite a headache. Nothing a custom rom wouldn't fix, but still worrying.

No one else bothered by the really low I/o score
nvm didn't refresh the thread lol

hanthesolo said:
Good job with your review, I found it balanced and informative. It would be nice if you made a followup about general UI performance at some point. I know it's supposed to be rather speedy, but I have found mixed verdicts on the forums. It would also be nice if someone made a review from a dev's standpoint (maybe I will ), but overall excellent work!
---------- Post added at 04:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:28 PM ----------
Based on the quadrant benchmark, it seems to suffer from some amount of I/O deficiency, which I have learned the hard way can be quite a headache. Nothing a custom rom wouldn't fix, but still worrying.
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If the I/O is slow then there's only so much a rom can do. It's a hardware problem.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda app-developers app

Yeah, of course I know that! I have had a lot if experience speeding up low-io devices, so I meant that it wouldn't be too hard for someone to patch things up to increase usability in a custom rom, assuming the I/O is not TOO shoddy.

Thanks for the positive feedback! I'll run some more tests, and give some impressions after a couple days use. After the first overnight leaving the battery at 25%, the battery meter seems to have calibrated and battery life has been great. For the first time in my Android experience, you can load a media-rich page (like the last one) and flick-scroll top to bottom and back with no lag, pause while loading times, or anything. It's very home PC-esque.
More to come.
And to all the other Archer fans here... DUH, and/or HELLO!!!

OK, well... no more to come, for awhile at least. I gave the N7 to my parents. It was a leap of faith that they'd be up for the concept of an Android tablet, especially since they're in their 70s... but Mom has a basic Android slider phone, has a Nook reader along with a PC and a really crappy netbook. So, after spending a couple hours with them, setting up their accounts, giving them a tour of the device, and walking them trough the different Google features... they're excited. Dad, who's terrified of computers, was even playing Angry Birds. They loved the new Jelly Bean voice search. So, I'll give some updates on how a pair of seniors are dealing with some cutting edge technology.
Me, I'm looking forward to what Google has next... I'd love a 10" full-featured tab with expandable memory, 1080p screen, and all the great tech the N7 has.

Nice review!
Another nice (and glowing) review is http://gdgt.com/asus/nexus/7/reviews/r22/

The Kindle Fire OS is as much a tablet version as JB for the Nexus 7. Both are essentially phone OS.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

ijeff said:
The Kindle Fire OS is as much a tablet version as JB for the Nexus 7. Both are essentially phone OS.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldn't disagree more Much of the evolution of Jelly Bean came from Honeycomb, which was without question, a tablet OS. The Kindle Fire IS a phone OS. It's based upon Gingerbread. That was NEVER intended for tablets. Now, Android devices have a single upgrade path, and it's ICS/JB... but I simply can't see where you could refer to JB as a phone OS.

Tempie007 said:
could you please run androbench and post the results here? want to know if this device suffers from IO problems like all other Asus tablets!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, now that I have a Nexus 7 again... here you go:

Some follow-up notes after using the Nexus 7 (well, the 2nd Nexus 7) for a week.
1) The GPS locks pretty quickly, and although ridiculously huge, works great with Navigator and having internet tethered from my phone.
2) No glitches or defects in my current one or the one I gave my parents. Feeling pretty lucky all around with these gadgets.
3) The tablet fits quite well in the pocket of most cargo slacks.
4) Google's voice search is a blast to show to iPeople when they get all uppity over their beloved Siri. Snicker.
5) Early concerns over the lack of Flash are mostly eased. Many of the sites I use at work that formerly required Flash seem adapted to HTML5. And, they all work well with Chrome. I guess we can say Chrome is now a grown-up browser.
6) Grab the free game Dark Meadow: The Pact from the Play Store market. It really shows off the abilities of the Tegra 3. You're Welcome.
7) This tablet is taking more and more time away from my old (well, in technology terms anyway...) Acer A500 tablet. I never thought I would get so much use out of a 7" tablet. It's a pleasant surprise. I really appreciate how thin and light it is.

Thinking of getting teh HD+ ..few questions to all you owners..

I have been looking at the HD+ for sometime and i might get one..i have had a few android tablets and i like the price of this one MUCH more.
few questions..
"The Verge" .com review was horrible..they showed Bad Bad lag, unlocking the screen, pulling the notifications shade down, swithing users etc..was this just a bad hardware issue or is this THAT laggy? did a software update fix it? what would all of you compare the smoothness to especually if you have owened more expensive tablets.
i know you can run CM10.1 but could i run nova launcher on top of the stock software? i read that the stock software gets better battery life?
talking about that..what are you all seeing for battery life and screen on time?
after reading all your comments i will make my decision. also the screen looks georgous and that is what i want..NO Pixels..haha
Thanks in advance!!

dvigue said:
I have been looking at the HD+ for sometime and i might get one..i have had a few android tablets and i like the price of this one MUCH more.
few questions..
"The Verge" .com review was horrible..they showed Bad Bad lag, unlocking the screen, pulling the notifications shade down, swithing users etc..was this just a bad hardware issue or is this THAT laggy? did a software update fix it? what would all of you compare the smoothness to especually if you have owened more expensive tablets.
i know you can run CM10.1 but could i run nova launcher on top of the stock software? i read that the stock software gets better battery life?
talking about that..what are you all seeing for battery life and screen on time?
after reading all your comments i will make my decision. also the screen looks georgous and that is what i want..NO Pixels..haha
Thanks in advance!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had my hd+ for a couple weeks, since 2.0.6, so I don't know about previous revs, but its not distractingly laggy or anything horrible like that. I've found it completely acceptable especially due the fact that it is well done in many other regards.
You can run any launcher you want now, even easier since they added google play store support built in, with 2.1.0.
Battery life is really fantastic, depending upon what your doing, etc.. your screen on time will go 6-9 hours easily. Sleeps well, with minimal battery loss as well.
I haven't bothered with cm because i'm quite happy with stock, so I can't comment much on that.
Your not gonna find a better value anywhere. The screen is amazing, 256 ppi and the color tuning they did is just gorgeous. toss in a 64gb sdcard like I have and you get 96gb super high res tablet with great battery life for far far less than anything else on the market.

I second everything andmer says. I'll add that I bought an HD+ right after they were released, and I never had any lag problems and loved the device from day 1. I only had responsiveness issues with the internet browsers I used(stock and maxthon), but the problems weren't that bad, really. Now with the new software update, everything is far smoother and faster than it ever was (for me, at least), and the Chrome browser has replaced the stock browser and is super-fast. I will reinstall Maxthon later tonight and see if that's any better now.
As for battery life, I've heard some people say on the B&N forums that they're getting some battery drainage since the update that they didn't have before, but i haven't had to charge my HD+ for 2 1/2 days and I've been using it a lot in that time--not constantly, but at least for 2-3 hours a night, including reading, installing apps, and lots of internet usage. I think certain apps (ones that are set to constantly update or sync) are to blame for the drain and not the operating system.
The screen is gorgeous--I've compared it in person to friends' tablets and even my wife's iPad mini, and it looks better than all of them. Again, no complaints and I would highly recommend it!

Great info guys...i may grab one today..i mean..how can you beat 179???

heh, i know what you mean..I just picked up a 32gb HD+ from my local target yesterday for $215 after taxes...Far better than $330
so far it looks REALLY good.

i picked one up at noon time. i must say i am impressed so far..and i have owned ALL andoird tablets..

dvigue said:
i picked one up at noon time. i must say i am impressed so far..and i have owned ALL andoird tablets..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel the same, I had a tf101 and acer a500, have a nexus 7 and transformer infinity. The nook hd+ I got on monday is really nice...

dvigue said:
I have been looking at the HD+ for sometime and i might get one..i have had a few android tablets and i like the price of this one MUCH more.
few questions..
"The Verge" .com review was horrible..they showed Bad Bad lag, unlocking the screen, pulling the notifications shade down, swithing users etc..was this just a bad hardware issue or is this THAT laggy? did a software update fix it? what would all of you compare the smoothness to especually if you have owened more expensive tablets.
i know you can run CM10.1 but could i run nova launcher on top of the stock software? i read that the stock software gets better battery life?
talking about that..what are you all seeing for battery life and screen on time?
after reading all your comments i will make my decision. also the screen looks georgous and that is what i want..NO Pixels..haha
Thanks in advance!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just got mine today, but so far i am VERY pleased with it.
You can definitely use Nova launcher, Ive got Nova, Apex, Go and Next 3D on mine right now (just playing around to see what i like the most on here, I use Nova and Next 3D on my HTC One). I was worried about the increase in screen size, but they scale perfectly.
I have no long term battery experience since i just got mine, but ive played on it all evening and the battery has been quite good. It also seems to charge pretty quickly.
Until about three weeks ago, i was a manager for an AT&T corporate store and got to demo a lot of Android tablets. I was honestly never impressed with any of them. I bought this Nook HD+ because i just started really getting into rooting and flashing custom ROMs, hoping to eventually work my way up to some light development. At the current price, i couldnt resist the Nook.
In all honesty i like it far more than other Android tablets ive used that are built with much higher specs. I cant quite explain why :silly:
Regardless, theres no buyers remorse here what so ever. Hope you pick one up, and enjoy it as much as i am mine :good:

I do not feel any serious lag with stock rom 2.10 and based on benchmark numbers it is actually quite good.
(Same scores to Nexus 7 in HTML5 benchmark, 44FPS in 1920x1280 with Epic Citadel 3D gaming benchmark. Nexus 7 has 55FPS)
I tried CM10 and CM10.1. I really liked CM10.1 but running it on SD card is just too slow mainly due to slow read/write by the SD card.
Once they have a stable build it may be possible to replace stock rom completely with CM10.1. That way there would be no I/O penalty from the SD card. At the moment though I would stay with stock rom 2.10 at least for some time.

well..i have to say..i returned the nook...apps like flipboard ran SO laggy, i mean bad..i was on stock 2.1 and tried nova also..no dice..in the end i could not handle some of the lag...
did i maybe have a bad nook?

dvigue said:
well..i have to say..i returned the nook...apps like flipboard ran SO laggy, i mean bad..i was on stock 2.1 and tried nova also..no dice..in the end i could not handle some of the lag...
did i maybe have a bad nook?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry about your bad experience. I don't use flipboard so I can't comment on that.
I tested dungeon hunter 4 in single player mode. It runs really smooth just like on the Nexus 7.
Also web browsing and playing online videos both work perfectly.
Maybe it doesn't work well with the apps that you use. If so it may not be a good fit to your needs.

[Q] Worth getting?

I currently have a Galaxy Ace 2 but I have the urge to get something a little more powerful and I noticed the Razr i is quite cheap at £159.99.
A few questions though, given that the device is single core, does everything work really smooth? How do high-intensity games play?
Is Skype compatible?
Many thanks

cined said:
I currently have a Galaxy Ace 2 but I have the urge to get something a little more powerful and I noticed the Razr i is quite cheap at £159.99.
A few questions though, given that the device is single core, does everything work really smooth? How do high-intensity games play?
Is Skype compatible?
Many thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the actual price you won't get anything better:
- the atom single core is fast and power efficient, the phone is really responsive (for an android phone)
- huge battery (2000 mAh)
- a really nice metal frame chassis with kevlar application on the back. And it's a really compact phone, almost the same form factor as an iPhone 5.
- the screen is not really competetive with the new high end full HD displays, nevertheless it's got really vivid but no too overpowered colours and the pentile matrix is only visible if you really want to see it
- multicolor notification LED
- Android is only slightly themed by Motorola. Anyhow the Motorola icons are ugly as hell and you will have to unlock the bootloader to achive root and flash a themed mod to get back the plain AOSP style.
- Skype is compatible. Allmost all (non high-end game) apps are compatible today.
In fact there still are non compatible games. Look up the thread in Mods & Apps for well working games.
In conclusion there are of course better phones on the market, but they are all huge like frying pans and are not available at this price point.

hypophysis said:
For the actual price you won't get anything better:
- the atom single core is fast and power efficient, the phone is really responsive (for an android phone)
- huge battery (2000 mAh)
- a really nice metal frame chassis with kevlar application on the back. And it's a really compact phone, almost the same form factor as an iPhone 5.
- the screen is not really competetive with the new high end full HD displays, nevertheless it's got really vivid but no too overpowered colours and the pentile matrix is only visible if you really want to see it
- multicolor notification LED
- Android is only slightly themed by Motorola. Anyhow the Motorola icons are ugly as hell and you will have to unlock the bootloader to achive root and flash a themed mod to get back the plain AOSP style.
- Skype is compatible. Allmost all (non high-end game) apps are compatible today.
In fact there still are non compatible games. Look up the thread in Mods & Apps for well working games.
In conclusion there are of course better phones on the market, but they are all huge like frying pans and are not available at this price point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the informative reply.
The main thing I wanted to know is wether it'd be worth upgrading from the Ace 2.

cined said:
Thank you for the informative reply.
The main thing I wanted to know is wether it'd be worth upgrading from the Ace 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can anyone else offer any advice please?

cined said:
Can anyone else offer any advice please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try compare ace 2 and razr i on gsmarena.com
there you can see the differece. And in my opinion, the razr i would be a great upgrade for you!

Look, I play all sorts on mine other than NFS most wanted which for me is the only lagging game. The 2ghz processor is brilliant and has multi threading and the phone its self is practically bulletproof haha I drop mine all the time and its still mint. You don't need to ask about upgrading, just do it. There isn't a chance you'll regret it. Its miles ahead of an ace 2
Sent from my RAZR I XT890 using XDA premium

[Q] Is this a good phone?

Hey, in some few days i will recieve this phone, i was asking if is better to sell it or take it, i was planning to sell it ans buy a moto g, but in my country they are all sold out, i think they will come in 2 weeks.
Bye

Recommend that you do not stay there with very few mini s3 rom and all have many bug ...

Daks32 said:
Hey, in some few days i will recieve this phone, i was asking if is better to sell it or take it, i was planning to sell it ans buy a moto g, but in my country they are all sold out, i think they will come in 2 weeks.
Bye
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone is rubbish with stock Samsung OS and software! Slow often glitchy, long waits for simple stuff like switching between apps or even going back to the home screen.
BUT - with a custom ROM this phone is potentially AWESOME. Lag is gone, battery life much better. I make my girlfriend jealous and she has an iPhone 5S, lol.
Slightly bigger screen than iPhone, much lighter, more sturdy, expandable memory, FM tuner, and with a custom ROM loads more features and better interface.
Some ROMs are not available for this phone but a lot are: Many available from maclaw.pl, I've tried CM11 but found Carbon (latest unofficial KitKat) has a few more options and some nice optimisations to maximise battery life without sacrificing performance at all.

Games
james.faction said:
The phone is rubbish with stock Samsung OS and software! Slow often glitchy, long waits for simple stuff like switching between apps or even going back to the home screen.
BUT - with a custom ROM this phone is potentially AWESOME. Lag is gone, battery life much better. I make my girlfriend jealous and she has an iPhone 5S, lol.
Slightly bigger screen than iPhone, much lighter, more sturdy, expandable memory, FM tuner, and with a custom ROM loads more features and better interface.
Some ROMs are not available for this phone but a lot are: Many available from maclaw.pl, I've tried CM11 but found Carbon (latest unofficial KitKat) has a few more options and some nice optimisations to maximise battery life without sacrificing performance at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, thank you, i think i will stay with it, and what can you tell me about games?, is good enough?, thanks bye

With stock, framerates go slow sometimes - since going custom no probs at all. Play a lot of Real Steel World Robot Boxing, a 3D effects-heavy game, runs without a hitch. Screen quality good, graphics good.

I just got one yesterday as a replacement for my work phone. I was using an iPhone 4 on iOS 7. thdevicee mini is a about the same size, but I have the benefits of android, root, larger screen, and the Google kit Kat keyboard. compared to the outdated iPhone 4 it's a decent upgrade.
my personal line is a galaxy s4. the s3 mini doesn't compare, but given that the s4 is my primary device and the s3 mini is for work calls and email only it's pretty dang good.

its a good phone but we have only a few developers for custom roms
---------- Post added at 12:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 AM ----------
also we still dont have miui rom for example, wich almost every other phone already have one stable :/

custom ROM support, or lack thereof, doesn't make a phone good or bad...
if flashing ROMs is a priority, get a nexus as AOSP based ROMs on pretty much anything else sucks. any device with a Google Play Edition version and an unlocked boot loader will be a very close second.

I think the S3 Mini is a very nice phone but there are many other phones which has better performance and battery but they are not so cheap like the S3 Mini The Moto G is okay but the Gaming Performance is bad.. sry for my bad english

It's typical mid-range, with a decent custom ROM every day tasks are quick and the phone is very responsive. It'll gobble up casual games easily and some old intensive games but unsurprisingly you're not going to playing brand new high end games!