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I am thinking about upgrading from S2, can someone with both phones compare - what advantages (if any ) / disadvantages Note has over S2 ?
Obviously Note has bigger screen - but screen aside - did you notice any other area where Note triumphs S2 ? (GPS, wifi, battery life with screen turned on, sound quality, camera, sotware issues...) How about heat problems ? S2 can get pretty hot under high workload, is Note any better ? (afaik it basically runs the same chip just clocked higher which makes me wondering)
Also regarding the screen - are the colors / brightness / outdoor visibility etc. the same and the difference is only in size / resolution / ppi ? And finally: is there someone who tried both and actually preferred S2 ?
They're almost the same. For me the major difference is battery life and spen ... I love to sketch. So I switched. Battery is superb.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA App
I don't own either, but from what I've seen the battery is way better on the Note than basically any other Android phone. Colors will be slightly less vibrant because it's not a SAMOLED+ display, it's just SAMOLED. But honestly, who cares? It's 720p!
Yumunum said:
I don't own either, but from what I've seen the battery is way better on the Note than basically any other Android phone. Colors will be slightly less vibrant because it's not a SAMOLED+ display, it's just SAMOLED. But honestly, who cares? It's 720p!
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The colors are amazing. I find them just as vibrant as the S2. The only real difference is the pentile display, but the dpi is so high you can't even tell. I find the screen to be far more useful than the S2 with the extra size and resolution.
Battery life wasn't great at first but once I turned off latitude and froze a few samsung apps it got MUCH better. Oh, and using minimum brightness is a major factor too. I wasn't too happy about turning the brightness down but after a day you don't notice it. I just have a widget on the desktop so I can quickly turn up the brightness if I need to.
After using the phone for a bit more, the Note is better in some ares:
-GLONASS satellite system allows it very fast lock in and response, although its not as precise as GPS, maybe 5-10ft off, but realky isn't an issue at all.
-Better PPI, but can see grains if eyes 6" from the screen.
-Screen is slightly brighter.
Cons: Can't operate it one handed at all due to size.
Sound quality is the same, not bad but not great. Same camera I think. Both can get pretty warm, but a case helps.
battery life: qualitatively it seems note lasts longer.
sound quality: equally good but note louder esp on speaker.
heat: i suppose any phone will heat up under stress e.g. video, charging but by and large i have never felt much heat from either.
camera: this is one area note is better than S2. S2 had weird pink hues but this is less noticeable in note. the screen seems to respond better in camera mode for note too.
in short, unless size and portability are major concerns, note is a better get. hope this helps!
comrad said:
I am thinking about upgrading from S2, can someone with both phones compare - what advantages (if any ) / disadvantages Note has over S2 ?
Obviously Note has bigger screen - but screen aside - did you notice any other area where Note triumphs S2 ? (GPS, wifi, battery life with screen turned on, sound quality, camera, sotware issues...) How about heat problems ? S2 can get pretty hot under high workload, is Note any better ? (afaik it basically runs the same chip just clocked higher which makes me wondering)
Also regarding the screen - are the colors / brightness / outdoor visibility etc. the same and the difference is only in size / resolution / ppi ? And finally: is there someone who tried both and actually preferred S2 ?
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Allrighty.
I currently own both, and can help you out with answering a few things.
I'll start off with something that I haven't seen many if any even, touch base on:
Typing is a dream. I used the stock Gingerbread keyboard on my Galaxy SII as it was the most comfortable one for me, but found it a tad cramped at times and landscape was just too wide to type anything on naturally. On the Note using the same keyboard, I personally had fewer mistakes and found that my typing speed had stayed near dead on to my thumbing on the smaller brother. I'd say it hits that sweet spot for completely comfortable portrait typing.
The sound quality in call is right on par with that of the GSII, dare I say even a little bit better. In any of the time I've spent talking on it, I haven't had an issue and it's clear on the other end.
Battery life is most certainly better. It's not worlds better, but I have no worries that I won't kill my battery come the end of my day and get home, whereas there were days were I was cutting it too close for comfort on the GSII. I'm a light to moderate user, with locally stored music playback anywhere from 1-7 hours, screen on time around 3-4 hours, bluetooth always on (for MBW-150), and no wifi every day.
I've found the software for the camera to be improved. It's not Nexus-fast in terms of snapping off a photo, but it's easily much faster at taking a photo on the Note than the GSII. Image quality and detail is on par with the GSII's snapper.
The Note is the same as the SII in terms of heat. That hasn't changed, but this is only if you're actually working it by playing games or watching HD video. Likewise, it stays cool with regular use, as does the SII.
Screen saturation is almost that of the SII's screen, but not enough to fret about. I've found the colour on the Note's screen to be a touch warmer, but that could very well be because it's a newer screen with less on time than my GSII. Outdoor visibility isn't an issue, at my usual screen brightness of 25% I have no problems making out what's on the screen throughout the day, even in near direct sunlight. This was the same case with it's smaller sibling, so no real differences here.
As a note about the Note's screen (pardon the pun), the screen is fantastic. Flat out. Text, images, and video are easily more crisp and enjoyable to view on the Note than the SII. Because of the high pixel density, you can't even make out the sup pixels while reading unless you bring the phone less than 6" away from your face and even then it's difficult.
I absolutely love my Note. Everyone I've showed it to has had the same reaction: "Wow. It huge!". So it most certainly stands out if that might matter to you. There are times where I miss the GSII for it's size and general 'feel'. It's definitely been tamed and feels a touch more responsive while moving through the OS, and the light weight was always a plus. There have been times where my hand was slightly fatigued from holding the Note, but again this really is a two handed device.
To sum it all up, I bought my Galaxy SII in August. I just got my Note about a week ago, never handling or seeing one in real life and I feel it was a worthy enough upgrade. My reasoning is of course biased for my wants in the device, but chances are if you're looking into getting this device, you'll surely be impressed.
It is interesting to see different experiences with SGS2 and Note. I own both, and here is my quick comparison.
Screen - I like the bigger format ( I love the bigger format) but the screen is not as bright as SGS2. White is little bit grayish. Colors are pretty much same, I don't see the problem with RGB or pentile display. So Note: 1 point.
Sound - I absolutely love the sound, all notifications are louder, in call volume louder, speaker louder and more bass. Note: 1 point
Wi Fi signal: I tested SGS2, Note, Galaxy Tab and my wife's Iphone 4G wifi signal strength in my house, I have latest Linksys router, super fast cable internet with latest modem capable up to 100 mbps, in real I am getting 54 mbps. Note performed worst of all of them. Around 16 mbps versus 22 for SGS 2 and iPhone. Very dissapointed with wi fi signal strength as well, loosing signal in places where SGS2 and iPhone still works ok. Note: 0 points, SGS 2 : 1 point.
Camera: oh boy, much much worse than SGS 2, I couldn't believe how bad this camera is. I will post later side by side pictures from both phones with same settings, you will be surprised. Not focusing as quickly as SGS2, white balance off, takes ages refocusing between light area and dark area, etc... SGS 2: 1 more point here.
Stylus: since SGS2 doesn't have it, Note gets 1 more point here, because I find this feature very useful for my business and it was one of the main reasons I bought this phone. (screen and Stylus)
Scrolling between home screens is little bit laggy, much more noticeable than SGS2. Stock browser scrolling is jerky, not iphone smooth as SGS2. Wake up screen delay is 1.5 sec from pressing any button ( home or power) compared to almost instant screen on with SGS2.
Both phones running stock firmware, SGS2 is on UK unbranded 2.3.4 rooted, Note is on 2.3.6. German firmware not rooted.(yet)
Using it on USA AT&T carrier. Phone signal more less same,somewhere SGS2 performs better, somewhere Note has better signal, but I am satisfied with both phones performances.
Overall I prefer Note right now, it may be because of it's novelty versus my "old" SGS2, but it will be very hard for me to go to smaller size screen phone after using Note. Probably the best phone I ever had so far. I bought Note without seeing it in real from Amazon.de and I am not dissapointed with the purchase.
enjoy it, life is short.
Well thanks everyone, my general impressions from what has been said are:
1.) Screen is much better
2.) Battery is much better
3.) Pen is a potential advantage (I almost forgot about the pen)
4.) Experience with remaining features can vary (probably due to manufacturing differences ?) but overall they are all more or less comparable to Galaxy S2
5.) With one exception being GPS, at least based on this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=arOYNNux_mg
it seems the Note's GPS should be quite superior (it may be the best GPS in any phone yet ?)
So if screen, battery life and GPS are improved over S2 then it's probably good enough for me. However it would be much cleaner cut if there would be more horsepower under the hood as well I'd love some faster CPU, 32GB of storage and faster stock sd cards. (Actually I'd love to see some SSD on it You can put SSD into a netbook so why not to a phone ? )
Also one thing I would probably prefer is to have 16:9 (720 height instead of 800) display and about 4.8 - 5" big, slightly more portable and less funny looking while making a call. Maybe they've opted for Note's aspect ratio as to give better support for note taking ?
ive had my galaxy note for a month. just picked up a free galaxy s2 today on vodafone AU's $29 cap. personally, i think i'll stick with the note. everything about the note is just more convenient for me. bigger screen makes portrait keyboard awesome, higher res makes everything look better. battery life is only better on the note with gaming and video watching, both are on par for web browsing battery life due to the weakness of samoled.
gps is much much better on my galaxy note. locks down fairly well when im indoors whilst the s2 cant even lock after running it for half an hour in navigation mode.
as for the screen ratio, samsung havent made a phone that uses 16:9 screen ratio for a fair while (if they have made any at all, cant seem to think of any). the slightly wider/taller (depending on how you look at it) makes portrait keyboard useful, but i must agree, the extra pixels are wasted on videos. if you want a 16:9 screen ratio, look towards the lg nitro hd and galaxy nexus.
one thing the galaxy nexus has that these phones dont seem to have is the correct positioning of the 3.5mm socket. the galaxy nexus has it positioned on the bottom, like my old n900. this is the perfect place for the socket since it means you can pull your phone out of your pocket when headphones are plugged in and it will be the right way up. it also means if youre plugging it into anything in your car, it wont have any silly cables coming out the top. its one of those little things that are nice and much appreciated. but im digressing a bit here.
overall, the phones will be similar, with the screen being the main difference and the unique advantage of the note will be the S pen. but that may be a bit of a downer in terms of update speed. for the galaxy s2, all samsung need to do is refine the experience, add touchwiz, and its all ready. for the note, they need to add touchwiz and then modify the S-Pen apps to run correctly as well. shouldnt delay the release of ICS for the note by too much considering samsung should have gained experience with ICS when working with the galaxy nexus, but its still a bit of a delay.
and i dont think SSDs will be needed on phones for a fair while. honestly, when will you need a read speed faster than 20mb/s? or a write speed faster than that? its only really useful when transferring files to and from a PC, but as to actual device usage, it has little impact. videos are encoded at what? 17mbps? thats still only 2-3mb/s of write speed needed. theres very little on the device that could take advantage of the added speed of an SSD. its just something that will drive up the product cost with very little benefit in realworld usage. apps load quickly enough so i dont think samsung would bother to consider an SSD for phones anytime soon.
Souai said:
and i dont think SSDs will be needed on phones for a fair while. honestly, when will you need a read speed faster than 20mb/s? or a write speed faster than that? its only really useful when transferring files to and from a PC, but as to actual device usage, it has little impact.
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Faster than 20MB/s - yes it's mainly for data transfer. But note also that while most android apps are small, some (especially games which can have couple of hundreds of MBs) should benefit from faster storage. And if you bench seq. write speed of S2 it's nowhere near to 20MB/s. It's more like 5-7MB/s - very slow for large data transfers (I don't know if Galaxy Note is any better). The internal memory of S2 is of course optimized for fast random reads/writes rather then seq. speeds. But if we can have high capacity USB3 sticks with read / write speeds above 100 MB/s and still very good random read/write speeds (e.g. 64GB flash for about 100€) then maybe to have phone with 32GB-64GB internal memory and 50/30MB/s and USB3 etc. could be done for similar price (which would be very fine with me).
Note seems to be well suited for video playback but with typical 720p movie at about 5GB I find the 12GB internal + 32GB external SD cards quite limiting in capacity as well as in transfer speeds (esp. considering that I need permanently at least 16GB for my music collection and lot's of free space for 1080p video recording) Surprisingly most netbooks have comparable RAM capacity and CPU speeds (at least for non floating point tasks) to those of highend smartphones, yet the storage capacity and seq. transfer speeds on netbooks is order of magnitudes higher.
I got it today ! It's very big AND unfortunately the side panel has annoying squeaking problem. It's only on one place - below the volume button, exactly where I tend to leave my fingers. Anyone else with the same problem ? Never had any squeaking problems on SGS2.
Is there a possibility that the back cover has not been clicked in place properly? I get squeaking too when that happens.
I have both phones.
When I got the Note I wanted to sell the S2, even had a buyer for it.
But after I used the Note for a day I start to have serious second thoughts.
The S2 is so much smoother ... Honestly, in this respect the Note is much closer to SG1 than SG2.
Hey mates
I have both of these phones myself, and I'm just wondering is there any possibilities to move memos from SGS2 to note??
Chagrim said:
Hey mates
I have both of these phones myself, and I'm just wondering is there any possibilities to move memos from SGS2 to note??
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With the backup feature on the PC, with syncing them to google, with the option to back them up with MyBackup, there are a lot of options Probably the easiest would be go into the options of your SGS2 Memo app and sync it to google, and then just redownload them on the Note. I like everything OTA. I dislike having to plug everything in to get stuff done.
zkyevolved said:
With the backup feature on the PC, with syncing them to google, with the option to back them up with MyBackup, there are a lot of options Probably the easiest would be go into the options of your SGS2 Memo app and sync it to google, and then just redownload them on the Note. I like everything OTA. I dislike having to plug everything in to get stuff done.
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Ok, now I feel myself really dumb! Thanks for that
holgalee said:
Is there a possibility that the back cover has not been clicked in place properly? I get squeaking too when that happens.
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That's not possible because I tripplechecked (by removing and putting back) the cover prior to asking here.
But there is more to Note than that: I saw videos of Note compared to S2 etc. on youtube I saw pictures in reviews etc. but nothing could prepare me to how big it actually is in real. I will be probably in minority here but I can't avoid thinking that it's actually too big - for calling it a phone at least. At the same time I could live with larger screen and res than S2 (mostly for comfortable video watching) So I think if I could spec and ideal phone for me, based on interpolation between S2 and Note it would have display comparable to Galaxy Nexus (1280x720 ~ 4.7" - 4.8", 120g - 140g) that should be a perfect balance between display usefulness and overall portability. Too bad they've crippled Nexus with missing SD slot and missing flash support. Hope that Galaxy S3 will hit it all right (I already can't wait ) Btw any chance Note's awesome GPS making it to other Samsung phones ? (can it be put to any phone regardless of it's size ?) As far as GPS goes the difference is stunning (basically a toy like implementation vs. state of the art awesomeness)
Now I have hard time deciding what to do with Note: I should probably return it but then the screen is so awesome that it's very tough to just return it, even when I don't need it Btw about the screen and pentile vs. non-pentile debate: there were only few occasions when I noticed there was some grain on the Note without looking for it, e.g. the red birds in Angry Birds Rio and orange balloon in Samsung demo video (from 0:36) On galaxy2 I never noticed any grain (even when looking for it), so yes Superamoled Plus would be even nicer but for 99% of practical cases it doesn't matter to me.
Where are those comparsion photos that someone mentioned. Has anyone had the camera perform poorly?
I own both, well I gave the S2 to the missus when I got the Note.
The Note is equivalent too, or better then the S2 in everything. I would find it impossible to have an S2 as my main phone now after having used the Note for almost a month.
You will hear a lot of negativity about the size of the Note, I kept hearing it is too big, it is uncomfortable to carry etc etc. Nonsense. It took me a day (max) to get use to the size, it fits in all my pockets comfortably and is very portable. Dare I say it I think it could even be a tad bigger, maybe 5.5" All other phones now seem tiny to me, and this has become the standard. I don't think I will be able to go back to a small(er) phone after using this.
I have found the camera and video recording similar to the S2. GPS on the Note is amazing, I get a lock in seconds, it beats every other satnav/phone I have ever owned. The screen... wow. One month on and it still impresses me. Games, Videos, Satnav, Internet Browsing even Ebook reading is all a joy on the Note, it is the ultimate all in one device imo.
I am planning to return my Tab S 8.4 today. Though the screen looks stellar and the build quality is great I just can not get over the terrible battery life in normal use (IE not limited just to movies with a darker theme) or the performance issues that this pair of Samsung processors has. I get so much noticeable lag and hesitation that it is just to annoying for a product like this. I really wish they had put in a SD 801 or 805 so that performance was stable and smooth across the board. Battery life if you do anything that uses much light colors is just terrible. The screen drains the battery so fast with web use for example. Reviews back this up. Testing with a movie on loop can have great results up to 12 hours if it is a dark enough movie but testing with a light background with web use on review benchmarks shows that time drop down to 7 hours. Unfortunately I don't do much movie watching on a tablet so it is a particular issue for me. I had it side by side with my ipad mini retina doing the same work and it was draining twice as fast as the iPad. I really wish they had not felt the need to go so thin and instead gave us a revolution in battery performance.
I can only imagine what this device might have been like if they released it with a SD 805 SoC and 10mm thickness with doubled battery life.
I've been using a black background on my amoled screens from S2, S4 and now S5. Dark themes in any apps that have them. On the Tab S I'm also trying night mode in Next Browser. Battery seems good so far and should be a little better with root/custom rom's.
I'm pretty damn picky and it's fast enough for me.
meboy said:
I've been using a black background on my amoled screens from S2, S4 and now S5. Dark themes in any apps that have them. On the Tab S I'm also trying night mode in Next Browser. Battery seems good so far and should be a little better with root/custom rom's.
I'm pretty damn picky and it's fast enough for me.
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Yeah, I really don't WANT to return it. I love that screen. Maybe I should try Next...In chrome most things are white and it is quite a drain. I also use black backgrounds. Primarily B/W portraits.
I am also disappointed in the performance of the device. It seems to stutter and lag constantly, even when not under heavy load. Maybe the L release (if it comes out for the tablet) will fix that, but I'm not holding my breath.
It seems like on a device coming out mid-2014, there should be no UI stutters.
I should also note that I'm using Nova Launcher so I can't speak much for lag on the Touchwiz Launcher.
HughesNet said:
I am planning to return my Tab S 8.4 today. Though the screen looks stellar and the build quality is great I just can not get over the terrible battery life in normal use (IE not limited just to movies with a darker theme) or the performance issues that this pair of Samsung processors has. I get so much noticeable lag and hesitation that it is just to annoying for a product like this. I really wish they had put in a SD 801 or 805 so that performance was stable and smooth across the board. Battery life if you do anything that uses much light colors is just terrible. The screen drains the battery so fast with web use for example. Reviews back this up. Testing with a movie on loop can have great results up to 12 hours if it is a dark enough movie but testing with a light background with web use on review benchmarks shows that time drop down to 7 hours. Unfortunately I don't do much movie watching on a tablet so it is a particular issue for me. I had it side by side with my ipad mini retina doing the same work and it was draining twice as fast as the iPad. I really wish they had not felt the need to go so thin and instead gave us a revolution in battery performance.
I can only imagine what this device might have been like if they released it with a SD 805 SoC and 10mm thickness with doubled battery life.
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Since you prefer battery life to size, you might consider the Tab pro 8.4 Sam rez, slightly thicker, no amoled, SD 800, and really good battery life for surfing.
gottahavit said:
Since you prefer battery life to size, you might consider the Tab pro 8.4 Sam rez, slightly thicker, no amoled, SD 800, and really good battery life for surfing.
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I actually have 3 of those in the house, my 2 sons and my wife. It is a nice device but not one that would cause me to sell my iPad Min Retina and switch. I was hoping the display and build of the Tab S would be that device. I think I may give it a second shot, try to live on the dark side as much as I can. Now that we have root I may be able to fix a couple issues.
I replaced my Tab Pro 10.1 for the Tab S 10.5. Speed and battery life on my part is much better on the Tab S than on the Tab Pro. Also, Wifi reception is much more better. My only complaint is with KitKat and not Samsung. They changed the permission setting and because of than, I cannot copy file from the internal memory to my SDCard with RootExplorer or save it directly on the SD Card with Dolphin Broswer.
For what its worth I am running Nova Launcher and have never experienced any lag whatsoever. Yeah battery life isn't great but that is never as advertised.
Wait for Freeza or someone to crank out a nice ROM for us and what lag there may be will improve. His ROM made my 8.4 Pro much faster.
urself25 said:
I replaced my Tab Pro 10.1 for the Tab S 10.5. Speed and battery life on my part is much better on the Tab S than on the Tab Pro. Also, Wifi reception is much more better. My only complaint is with KitKat and not Samsung. They changed the permission setting and because of than, I cannot copy file from the internal memory to my SDCard with RootExplorer or save it directly on the SD Card with Dolphin Broswer.
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If you use the Samsung My Files you can do that. And now that there is Root for your tablet you can always remove that restriction right now all together.
HughesNet said:
If you use the Samsung My Files you can do that. And now that there is Root for your tablet you can always remove that restriction right now all together.
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Yes, I discovered that yesterday. But still a pain that I have to use My Files app while Root Explorer could be doing it without any problem. I'm holding off root for the moment. I rooted my Note 2 but I don't have any reasons for the moment to root my Tab S.
I have the Tab 8.4 S and have zero issues with lag or battery and I would consider myself a heavy user. Playing games to watching HD movies while surfing the web and the battery does just fine.
Now... I do have Nova installed and did so as soon as I got the device onlined since I customize the hell out of my devices so I never experienced the TouchWiz launcher. I also have Clean Master and Battery Doctor installed. The combination of these three has made this my main device not only for home and hobby but also my work.
Touchwiz is actually Korean for "pretty eye candy that makes your tablet go slow". I swear.
I sold my Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 and bought a Galaxy Tab S 8.4 a couple says ago. Battery and performance are much better on Tab S IMO. This thing will be a beast after flashing a mod or two.
My only real gripe with this tablet is not how fast the battery drains but how long it takes to charge. This has to be the slowest charging electronic device I've ever owned. Wonder why?
mitchellvii said:
My only real gripe with this tablet is not how fast the battery drains but how long it takes to charge. This has to be the slowest charging electronic device I've ever owned. Wonder why?
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Are you using the stock charger? I never bothered with it from the get go and I am unsure how many volts it is.
I picked up a Rocketfish 10.2v from BB months ago at no cost using my Rewards. Priceless!
robertc88 said:
Are you using the stock charger? I never bothered with it from the get go and I am unsure how many volts it is.
I picked up a Rocketfish 10.2v from BB months ago at no cost using my Rewards. Priceless!
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The stock charger is 5v 2amps. Not sure I would want to risk any higher.
mitchellvii said:
The stock charger is 5v 2amps. Not sure I would want to risk any higher.
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Be careful increasing the volts but the more amps the better. Though high end devices have power controllers so it doesn't matter how much over the specs you go the recharge will always be the same.
My two cents
I have owned every galaxy from vibrant to S4. I owned an N10 (currently have a 2013 N7 and N5). I owned a Note 2. For what its worth, even with the extra pixels to push, I don't think this is a hardware issue. Touchwiz has always just been a poorly coded behemoth of a skin. With the exception of the Note 2 (which TW seemed to be very smooth on)...it has always had frame stutters and an ass ton of processes eating up cycles. Whenever I flashed a stripped down...or even better an actual AOSP (I love slim) ROM, performance on these devices have been flawless.
Full disclosure... my 10.5 S is charging right now and I have not even fired it up yet. But I will immediately root and debloat the Eff out of this thing. I agree that Sammy's tablet update cycle is ridiculous...and that a snapdragon should have been the cpu by default, but que cera cera.
Once I fire it up...I will report back.
So far here are my 8.4 gripes after about 24 hours of ownership:
Battery life - I charged it to 100% prior to use and was a bit shocked that I lost 10% just doing the setup and installing my apps.
Pentile screen - Part of this is my fault as I did not realize the 8.4 is pentile and I thought both the 10.5 and 8.4 were Super Amoled Plus. There is a bit of a softness to the 8.4 screen that seems unusual considering its size and PPI. In some ways I find the Nexus 7 screen a bit better and more realistic. I own a LG G3 and the QHD display on it is fantastic, and I had thought the 8.4 would have a little of that magic but it is not in the same league at all. I wonder what the real PPI is on the 8.4 considering it is pentile, I gather it is less than the Nexus 7. This may be a dealbreaker for me, I am going to use it tonight and do a little side by side with my Nexus 7 and Note 10.1 2014.
That said Netflix looks great on this device, the best I have seen so I wonder if the app does some sort of edge sharpening. When I watch 1080p content streamed to the 8.4 find it is not as sharp as it should be and really no better than the Note 10.1.
Going to give it another couple of days and see if it grows on me.
I figured it might be a good idea to share my thoughts on the Note 4, since I always put a lot of research into smartphone buying and someone might find it useful There are some of you that are still leaning toward different flagships all of the time (like I did!), so I hope this helps.
First of all I would like to mention that about a month ago I made up my mind to give up my LG G2 and switch to a new smartphone.
The Xiaomi mi4 came up first.
I liked the design, UI, price, specs. Everything about the mi4 is just above average, but thats about it. It didn't have that even slightest "wow factor" that I needed to push me to buying one. It's a very good phone, but the warranty would require me to send the phone far into the unknown in case something was wrong, I wasn't sure If I would pay tax as well. Nobody had the 64 gb model either (16gb and no card expansion, really?!). I decided that this would probably be a wise choice but it didn't offer anything more than what I already had on the G2, and in some cases, it was worse (camera). I passed.
My second choice was the LG G3.
So like always, I started researching, checking out different variants and prices, digging through the specs, looking for its strong sides and flaws. I liked the quad hd display at first, the SD 801 SoC, good camera with laser autofocus. The UI was a nice upgrade from the LG G2's cartoonish look. The 32 gb model seemed a good option with its 3gb of ram (although I didn't like the design as I wanted something different from the G2).
As I started to dig deaper though, I noticed that the display isn't all that awesome, as there is more to it than just resolution. I think they might have made the phone much better if they sticked to a 1080p panel and focused on other aspects like color reproduction, brightness, power consumption. I found out that the 801 chip is stretched to its limits (even over them..) with that display, which caused overheating, throttling and lagging in demanding tasks and games. I believe a smartphone should be able to handle anything you throw at it so I dumped the G3 from my plans.
Then the Z3 came up.
So again- researching, digging, looking at the cons and pros. I liked the design a lot better than the G3 (besides the plastic corners, although I can justify the reason they used them for). The display was beytter than the Z2, with very good brightness and color reproduction after making some adjustments to the stock settings. The audio quality is superb as well, the whole phone is waterproof and its battery life was very well above the current smartphones.
The camera in the Z3 is top of the line, but I didn't like how it overheats. Making the phone thinner wasn't necessary in my opinion and sony might have thought about the component allocation in the device, as putting everything in the top part of the phone wasn't too smart of a choice. The UI was something that I didn't like the most though. I know I could throw a custom ROM at it in a while, but I wasn't sure how that would work with the camera, battery life and other features sony offered in the stock ROM.
I almost made my mind up on the Z3, as it had everything I wanted and I could live with its cons but then the price came into my mind: 515 pounds including tax.
Thats the part the note 4 came into play.
I watched the Note 4 presentation: the phone impressed me in overall, I liked the design, UI, hardware etc. So I started digging again.
I've always wanted the best out of my phone, no matter if I was going to use all of the functions it had or not. I used my phone for calling, texting, making notes in google keep, gps, playing games, listening to music, browsing the web, taking pictures. Usually I endep up rooting it and putting a stock like ROM on it (although I used the stock LG G2 ROM all the way). The design of the phone was always important for me, thats why I had an iphone 4s and 5 for a month before ditching it cus of the awfully simple and boring OS.
The Note 4 seemed to be a very good phone that offered what I wanted and much more beyond that:
1. The display
It's resolution could have been not increased. Samsung could have stayed with a 1080p panel. But thats not whats important about this panel. This is what the DisplayMate test results are:
"The Galaxy Note 4 delivers uniformly consistent all around Top Tier display performance: it is the first Smartphone display to ever get all Green (Very Good to Excellent) Ratings in all test and measurement categories (except one Yellow for a Brightness Variation with Average Picture Level) since we started the Display Technology Shoot-Out article Series in 2006, an impressive achievement for a display. The Galaxy Note 4 has again raised the bar for top display performance up by another notch. "
The display is a window through which you interact with your phone, and it is a component that must be top of the line. There should be no compromise here. Samsung exceeded my expectations in this matter.
2. Performance
There are 2 variants of the Note as most of you know. I'm still having a hard time with both of them. At first I thought the Snapdragon is an obvious choice considering it was superior to all of the other chips last year.
But then the 64-bit affair came into place. Anyone would like their phone to be futureproof, and a 64-bit SoC would be a wise choice. The exynos and snapdragon chips offer pretty much the same performance. I tried looking at the benchmarks, real world usage, gaming, but one outpaces the other in different things and it is very hard to tell the difference. I believe the fluidity of the UI and overall performance must be taken into consideration the most, as I believe both chips will handle anything you throw at them when apps and games are optimized. The choice is either taking the 20nm exynos and hope for better battery life and 64-bit support OR the snapdragon one and expect better dev support.
I wanted the Exynos for the wolfson chip, as I like good quality music from my phone. I'll be using good headphones and PowerAmp so I figure I wouldn't notice much difference anyway. At least not enough to pay extra and import the exynos variant.
I'm pretty much set on the Snapdragon 805 as I believe the battery life should be good on both (the andreno 420 is powerful with lowered power consumption). Like I mentioned earlier I might change the ROM after a while if something good comes out. It's a matter of personal taste- NOT performance of the chips. Thats my opinion on the matter.
3. User Interface
Touchwiz was out of the question for me up until I saw the Galaxy S5 UI. I actually liked the flat style and functions it offered. The note 4 UI is pretty similar. I really like the S-Pen experience, it should be a great change for people who haven't used it before. I love taking notes and I'll use it often. I like the functions it offers, the selection in different UI elements, the ease of copy/pasting, more precise touch input.
Touchwiz has a lot of useless apps that I might not like, but I'm sure it will be possible to get rid of the ones you don't like later on, the dev community in here will surely help. I could go on about the stamina mode, multi-window, the ability to resize apps etc, but you've all seen that on videos. The most important fact for is that touchwiz had been improved, it is eye pleasing, smoother and faster than ever. It is the best custom android OS you can get atm.
4. Camera
On paper both of the cameras looked really good to me, but I wanted to wait and see the real world results. I wasn't disappointed. there were some early comparisions done, but some of them were pictures or videos not taken with the note 4, so getting a correct view at the performance was quite hard. We have these results now and the note camera is a top notch performer. I find day pictures top of the line, the details are there, colors are popping, OIS helps as well. 4k shooting isn't all that important to me but its a nice addition. The camera seems to be very capable and will perform great in a day-to-day user's hands as well in an experienced person ones.
You may find the night shots worse than of the lumia or z3, but thats just terribly trying to find a flaw to me. Come on- who the hell is going to photograph a piece of paper in the dark of the night!? insane. There are pictures taken with the note at night, i like how the lights aren't blurred and everything seems very crisp and detailed. Do remember what you'll be using the phone camera for, and the Note 4 delivers more than I want in those terms.
5. Battery life
Many people find this very important. I thought the Note 4 might get bad results cause of that screen so I checked out some vids of the LTE-A Galaxy S5 with the higher res display. The results were the same as the standars S5.
I am not sure if its the chip that is more power efficient, some power saving changes in the OS, or the screen, or maybe all of these at once, but the results people are having on the Notes they recently picked up are very pleasing to me.
Final words
I probably shouldn't, cause its so ridiculous, but I'll mention the gap gate as well- I don't give a crap about it. I wont even notice it. Especially with the case I'm going to put on the phone. And its something that samsung probably addressed already in the new batch of phones. There are other things I should maybe mention, but these 5 are most important for me. I really like the performace of the Note 4, its UI, functions, metal frame design, micro SD storage expansion, camera, battery, IR blaster and everything else that seems to be a full package that many will find good enough to put their money on. I surely will. On the black one of course
You have really done some good work digging up info and comparing them.
Just to add couple points to OP's excellent write up:
The battery life concern in #5 is actually addressed in already mentioned DisplayMate article, right towards the bottom it clearly states that the new screen, despite having larger number of pixels is more power efficient than 1080p screen of Note3 (0.05W for 50% and 0.2 W for 100% brightness), about 5 to 10% more efficient and Note 3 has proven itself to have very good battery life already.
The gap between screen and frame around might be by design, due to combination of plastic, glass and metal having different expansion rate due to temperature changes. My thinking is that if the phone was brought from very warm room into very cold outside, metal frame would cool and shrink much faster than the rest and could even possibly crack the glass, doing so. The gap possibly allows for contraction/expansion without doing any damage. Either way, outside of aesthetics, it doesn't affect anything and it's a non issue. Probably blown out of proportions as an attempt to shift attention away from bendgate.
pete4k said:
The battery life concern in #5 is actually addressed in already mentioned DisplayMate article, right towards the bottom it clearly states that the new screen, despite having larger number of pixels is more power efficient than 1080p screen of Note3 (0.05W for 50% and 0.2 W for 100% brightness), about 5 to 10% more efficient and Note 3 has proven itself to have very good battery life already
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he was referring to the increased GPU load due to the higher resolution which is a valid concern.
But as it has already been said, even the S5 LTE-A with its Snapdragon 805 and QHD resolution has the same battery life as the regular S5 with Full HD and Snapdragon 800.
Still, it would be interesting to see the battery life on a Snapdragon 805 device with only a Full HD display.
I would prefer the note 4 to have a 1080p panel with the same characteristics. But how many people actually use their head before buying a phone? It's a spec war for android phones..
han4mi said:
I would prefer the note 4 to have a 1080p panel with the same characteristics. But how many people actually use their head before buying a phone? It's a spec war for android phones..
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Click to collapse
Normally I would agree that FHD 1080p would be more than enough. However, since the GN4 is going to host the Gear VR, with magnifying lenses, I'm happy it went for the QHD
Sent from my Surface Pro 3 using Tapatalk
Audio Quality
Thanks for taking the time for the write up.
One area I would really like to know about is the quality of the rear speaker.
The sound quality is much more important to me than the placement (and sometimes the rear placement actually helps when you put it on a flat hard surface). I ruled out the Note 3 because its speaker was worse than the Note 2 which is still my current phone. The Note 2's speaker is actually pretty decent if the 4's is equal or better I would be thrilled.
Any input?
ymmp said:
Thanks for taking the time for the write up.
One area I would really like to know about is the quality of the rear speaker.
The sound quality is much more important to me than the placement (and sometimes the rear placement actually helps when you put it on a flat hard surface). I ruled out the Note 3 because its speaker was worse than the Note 2 which is still my current phone. The Note 2's speaker is actually pretty decent if the 4's is equal or better I would be thrilled.
Any input?
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Click to collapse
I have the same question, ´cause I am afraid, that speeker-quality will be on low level and I am used to fantastic stereo sound of my current htv one m8.
I think, the price for Note 4 ist extremly high. Meanwhile Samsungs flagships are playing in the same €-league with the latest iphons. So I want to hold it in my own hands first before buying it. In center of Europe the Note 4 will be available in about 2 weeks.
Maybe the new Nexus 6 has a better balance between price and specs. We´ll check it out.
Just read Phone Arena's review. Here's a quote:
"Unfortunately, the audio portion of the media experience isn't so spectacular. The single speaker of the Galaxy Note 4 is rather quiet and lacking any depth, making it sound thin and weak. It's not too bad, but it's far from the best we've heard"
How disappointing! The new Moto X is supposed to have an amazing front speaker. I just wonder if it is more like the Note 2 or 3.
I believe the speaker will be good enough to play the ringtone I choose. I prefer earphones+ Poweramp for my music. Like I said, it depends what you're expecting to use the phone for. The Note 4 meets my demands in key aspects and thats why I'm going for it. I don't want THE BEST PHONE. Such a phone does not exist. All of the flagships have their strenghts and weaknesses and a smart person would take the one with the most personally suitable set of features.
I have to decide between these two tables and I’m struggling. Sometimes it helps to verbalize my thoughts so I’m making a post. My goal is to hear your opinions and share my views on these two tablets, which are both great devices in different ways. I bought the Tab S 8.4 two weeks ago and received the Z3 tablet last week. I’ve had some time to play with both and I’ve come up with my personal list of pros and cons.
Tab S 8.4 (T700)
Pros:
Price - $360CAD = $400CAD taxes in
Display – higher res and OLED saturation, also slightly larger
Dev Community is active
Appearance – I really like the titanium/bronze color combo, it looks like a professional device
Cons:
Battery Life – Typical use I was getting ~5hrs of SOT with mixed gaming/clashing/browsing [Improvable w/ root]
Touchwiz bloat [Fixable’ish w/ root]
Performance – I’m listing this on-top of the Touchwiz lag because I’m not convinced the processor is enough to push the pixels under high demand. I was playing Hearthstone and the loading times were noticeably longer than on the Z3.
Physical buttons – After years of using android devices with on-screen buttons it’s hard for me to revert to using the hardware button on the Samsung. Even more confusing switching to landscape mode and having to use the hardware button on the right. [Fixable w/ root]
Neutral:
IR Blaster is nice to have
Fingerprint reader is nice, but I found it very finnnicky. Plus I will generally not lock this device because it’s being used at home 90% of the time.
Z3 Compact Tablet (SGP612)
Pros:
Battery Life – consistently getting 8+hrs of SOT with the same usage
Handling – the lighter weight and slightly smaller size make the tablet easier to handle
Software – Sony’s android software is close to stock and runs fast. Plus their built-in features (ex. Stamina mode, doubletap to wake) work very well
Remoteplay – PS4 controller / console connectivity is cool.
Design – nice industrial design overall, solid build quality.
Cons:
Price - $520CAD = $600CAD all-in. This tablet is 50% more expensive (inc. 32gb on-board vs 16gb on the Samsung) in my case.
Developer community – very small XDA community for this device right now.
Color – only the white version is sold in Canada and I’m not keen on all-white devices. The Tab S is much more appealing IMO.
Neutral:
Waterproof – I have no interest in testing this.
Display – smaller and lower res, but still a very good screen. Not a deciding factor IMO.
Integration w/ Sony Phones – I saw one review saying this was awesome but I don’t see much value. You can set the tablet up so it connects to your xperia phone using NFC and then you can use the phones mobile signal for data and also get calls/texts routed to the tablet. I won’t get much value out of this feature. Plus, I couldn’t get the NFC handshake to work (Z3TC on 4.4 stock, Z3C on 5.0 rooted).
tl;dr: I think I’ll return the Sony and stick with the Tab S. Price is the main deciding factor. I also think the Tab S is more visually appealing which is important to me. Rooting & customizing the Tab S should fix a lot of what I dislike about it and I like the active community here. I wish I could justify the price of the Z3 but the incremental performance and battery life just aren’t compelling enough. My typical use-case is playing games/browsing on the couch or hotel room. The Tab S is capable enough to play the games I want (Hearthstone, Clash of Clans) and the battery life is enough to last an evening at home or a domestic flight. I've realized that battery longevity on a tablet is way less important to me than on a phone.
Just a note
Hardware / Software Button is not Pro/Con.
Its preference.
Appearance also preference.
Would be interesting to know if the cons about lag are less with lollipop.
lynxblaine said:
Would be interesting to know if the cons about lag are less with lollipop.
Click to expand...
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I think there is definitely less lag with lollipop, almost non existent
Physical buttons can be huge advantage on a device with 16:10 screen ratio, especially below 8.5 inches. On screen buttons in a landscape mode take some space, which makes i.e. browsing web in a landscape very unpleasant. In recent days Xperia Z tablet had those buttons merged with status bar, so it was one black bar less than todays software. Think about it.
About display: Tab S of mine has a little brownish whites (even in comparision to other Tab S) which I hate. I guess Im not a Amoled fan, would rather have a IPS LCD on this tablet. And It is Pentile, so when you once notice it, it will never be unnoticed Colors are great, but its not perfect yet.
About software: I think that Xperia's software is more elegant, neat, clean and fluid than touch wiz. But it is only my opinion.
Would I change my Tab S for Z3 tablet compact? Definitely not, beacause that 8 inch screen with on-screen-buttons is simply too small. But I would change for Xperia Z4 tablet, Nexus 9 or Z2 tablet without hesitation.
GOF007 said:
Just a note
Hardware / Software Button is not Pro/Con.
Its preference.
Appearance also preference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said, this was a personal list and is all my opinion.
lynxblaine said:
Would be interesting to know if the cons about lag are less with lollipop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm curious too. Now that I'm planning to meet the Tab I may also try flash some l
KK Roms to see how a tuned ROM performs.
Frantic_kr said:
Physical buttons can be huge advantage on a device with 16:10 screen ratio, especially below 8.5 inches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The biggest thing for new is that these physical buttons are backwards! Multi task should be on the right and the back button on the left, just like the nav bar on my other devices. My brain feels dumb when I keep smashing the recent apps key on the Tab while trying to navigate back
Sent from my SM-T700 using XDA Free mobile app
I prefer on tab s 8.4
+best screen ppi tablet
+can call
+ average camera for tablet,
+ hancom office include ( best for bussines))
i'm really trying to wrap my head around their differences ,
by now, the price became comparable, in some cases the z3 is even cheaper than the tab S,
but the samsung has a bigger screen for roughly the same form factor, therefore it would be the obvious choice (apart for the portrait physical buttons that i also don't see the point of )
but testimonials and some reviews, like this one here, mention some battery life issues , i wonder if it's all bloatware's fault, or if the tab really does have inferior battery life , as i've seen some reviews claiming otherwise ,
for travel usage battery life and weight are the most important criterias to me and the reviews just confuse me further , so does the samsung beat the sony after software updates?
the Z3 also have the advantages of waterproofing (you never know when you're gonna need it.. ), front-facing speakers, magnetic charger and some cooler softwares coming with it (EQ, screen calibration, a decent video player, and of course, the stamina mode !) and it's a tiny bit lighter too so it's definitely a tough choice
Nickie66 said:
i'm really trying to wrap my head around their differences ,
by now, the price became comparable, in some cases the z3 is even cheaper than the tab S,
but the samsung has a bigger screen for roughly the same form factor, therefore it would be the obvious choice (apart for the portrait physical buttons that i also don't see the point of )
but testimonials and some reviews, like this one here, mention some battery life issues , i wonder if it's all bloatware's fault, or if the tab really does have inferior battery life , as i've seen some reviews claiming otherwise ,
for travel usage battery life and weight are the most important criterias to me and the reviews just confuse me further , so does the samsung beat the sony after software updates?
the Z3 also have the advantages of waterproofing (you never know when you're gonna need it.. ), front-facing speakers, magnetic charger and some cooler softwares coming with it (EQ, screen calibration, a decent video player, and of course, the stamina mode !) and it's a tiny bit lighter too so it's definitely a tough choice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sony has backed off on their claims of what the waterproofing can do.. So that's not even a failure anymore since they won't back it up.
Sent from my SM-T800 using Tapatalk
i don't think "failure" is the term there
but i've seen their statement, to me it sounds more like a fool-proofing disclaimer, discouraging the prolongated and reckless use of the tablet underwater; it still has the IP65 and 68 rating, but since it relies on flaps, it's more "water resistant" than "waterproof"...
so that's still a plus, even if it's a smaller plus than expected maybe, you can still have the tablet survive weather and accidents contrary to those who have no ip68 rating at all
of course it should not be the deciding factor when chosing the tablet though...
personally i'm finally ordering the sony, because of the samsung's battery life and performance issues that seem kind of consistent among reviews , and even more so by this guy:
youtube.com/watch?v=CMKonSEd7zc
who had a tab S for months, but then bought a Z3TC out of frustration with the samsung..
Guys, I have owned a Tab S T-705 for almost a year now, and I can guarantee that this tablet has no battery-life nor performance issues. My Tab S battery lasts over two days on average, and with the proper ROM everything is very smooth. Just install any Lollipop custom ROM (I am on PowerRom), flash Xposed from arter97 ' thread, and convert to the new F2FS file system.
I know, it takes a bit of reading and hacking, but it is definitely worth the effort.
I am also happier with tab s 10.4 than with tablet z2 which had a lot of problems and i almost threw it on the floor and break it...sony sucks...never again sony neither tablet neither phone...they have to step up with the quality control (my brothers z3 has bad screen, my mothers z3c has also a lot of problems...no thanks...i admit battery life was better on tablet z2 and games were runing better due to the pixel density but everything else was frustrating (display problems, touch problems, sqeaking tablet,...) browsing with chrome is better with tab s it was laggier with the tablet z2 the system was not laggy on neither one...
stopa10 said:
Guys, I have owned a Tab S T-705 for almost a year now, and I can guarantee that this tablet has no battery-life nor performance issues. My Tab S battery lasts over two days on average, and with the proper ROM everything is very smooth. Just install any Lollipop custom ROM (I am on PowerRom), flash Xposed from arter97 ' thread, and convert to the new F2FS file system.
I know, it takes a bit of reading and hacking, but it is definitely worth the effort.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coming from a Tab 7.7 (P6800), the battery life of the T700 is definitely awful. The battery lasts 1-2 days with light usage, while the 7.7 would go on for over a week with the same usage pattern. My experience with Sony phones say that the Z3C tablet should last much longer than this T700.
I have them both here side by side. My experience with both devices are more or less similar. Here is my personal list:
T700: Better display, it feels more solid, I like the speakers more eventhough they are located at the sides, more usable display area due to the capacitive buttons and the slightly bigger screen, the design is ugly, battery life is significanlty worse, performance is inferior but enough for me.
Z3 Tablet Compact (32GB): Nice design, doesn't feel as solid, slightly lighter, double tap to wake, better performance and battery life, faster software updates eventhough the 32GB version is still at 5.0.2. while the 16GB version already got 5.1.1. and can be updated manually to 6.0 beta from sony's homepage.
Verdict: Beeing waterproof is no deciding factor for me, nor are the front facing speakers. My Z3 Tablet Compact has a weird feel to it: when you touch the touchscreen it sounds hollow. Hence the T700 feels more solid. Pricewise the T700 is 50€ cheaper here in Germany (compared to the 16GB version of the Z3 Tablet Compact). I bought a used T700 for 200€ including a book cover and a 64GB SDXC card, so the T700 was quite a steal. A used 32GB Z3 Tablet Compact still runs you 300€. It really comes down to what you want and how much you are willing to pay. If the price is not an issue, then it would be an even harder decision because every device has it's pros and cons. In my particular case, I will keep the T700 since it was so cheap. If performance and battery life are you main criteria, then go for the Z3 Tablet Compact. The cons I've listed are noticeable mostly when you compare the device. The device itself is great! To make the decision even harder, what about the Zenpad S 8.0 CA? It has 64GB storage, 4GB of RAM, a Z3580 and an ok screen. It costs the same as the 16GB Sony here in Germany and has optional pen input.
What do you guys suggest? Anyone here or the T1 Tacital watch? Sorry to part question [emoji41]
Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Space Technology
I use my Galaxy S3 Classic with it without any issues. It's an older smartwatch but in the world of Android smartwatches still one of the best available options. I briefly owned the newer version of Samsung's offering, the stainless steel variant of the Active2 watch, but I found that it didn't offer much if anything in terms of improvements to the S3 Classic, while sacrificing a lot in design and practicability of the UX.
For Android you'll want to go with one of the new offerings with the gig of RAM, makes a huge difference in the GUI where they are vastly more smooth in operation. I'd set my sights on either the Gen 5 or TicWatch Pro. The Samsung devices work better with Samsung phones but still work ok with other android phones and have much better battery life but you give up all the options Wear brings with it. There are often big sales on smartwatches, often enough I'd consider it worth defining which one I wanted and waiting for a good sale to pick it up.
krabman said:
For Android you'll want to go with one of the new offerings with the gig of RAM, makes a huge difference in the GUI where they are vastly more smooth in operation. I'd set my sights on either the Gen 5 or TicWatch Pro. The Samsung devices work better with Samsung phones but still work ok with other android phones and have much better battery life but you give up all the options Wear brings with it. There are often big sales on smartwatches, often enough I'd consider it worth defining which one I wanted and waiting for a good sale to pick it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm curious - what options is he giving up because my understanding is that Wear watches are literally the worst wearables out there with the least useful features. Samsung devices are regarded as only second to Apple and work with any Android device. Genuine question.
Nah, the feature set was never the problem, it was the performance and poor battery life. I haven't owned an Apple watch and I'm not going to as the iphone is an answer to a question I never asked. Being as it's not a part of this discussion or going to be used on this phone I think we can set it aside. The Sammy offerings have much better battery life, it's not even close, and that is their primary benefit. They did also have far better performance but that has changed so long as you get one of the new offerings with a gig of RAM. Now the performance is much closer although I'd still give the nod to the Samsung devices. It is close enough however that it becomes a matter of features and available apps to my mind unless you have a Samsung phone and use their apps, in that case I'd go all in with Samsung. Now that wear can legitimately make it through a long day of use before it needs to go on the charger and the sluggish performance has been fixed wear becomes much more compelling than it once was. You have many more apps, watch faces, etc. Integration with Google maps is much better which is a big plus if you travel.
There was a reason why I mentioned both, Google essentially gives you options that you cant get with Samsung, the Samsung still has much better battery life and it's tight integration makes it better on Samsung devices but still good on other android phones if you're not missing any apps that you could have had on wear. It's something a user needs to make some calls on in terms of what they want. The only absolute mistake you can make here in my opinion is getting an older wear device without the extra ram, you want the 3100 and the 1 gig; that's a must have.
mobgod said:
What do you guys suggest? Anyone here or the T1 Tacital watch? Sorry to part question [emoji41]
Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Space Technology
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using a Fitbit Versa 2 & have been very satisfied with it.
Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
krabman said:
Nah, the feature set was never the problem, it was the performance and poor battery life. I haven't owned an Apple watch and I'm not going to as the iphone is an answer to a question I never asked. Being as it's not a part of this discussion or going to be used on this phone I think we can set it aside. The Sammy offerings have much better battery life, it's not even close, and that is their primary benefit. They did also have far better performance but that has changed so long as you get one of the new offerings with a gig of RAM. Now the performance is much closer although I'd still give the nod to the Samsung devices. It is close enough however that it becomes a matter of features and available apps to my mind unless you have a Samsung phone and use their apps, in that case I'd go all in with Samsung. Now that wear can legitimately make it through a long day of use before it needs to go on the charger and the sluggish performance has been fixed wear becomes much more compelling than it once was. You have many more apps, watch faces, etc. Integration with Google maps is much better which is a big plus if you travel.
There was a reason why I mentioned both, Google essentially gives you options that you cant get with Samsung, the Samsung still has much better battery life and it's tight integration makes it better on Samsung devices but still good on other android phones if you're not missing any apps that you could have had on wear. It's something a user needs to make some calls on in terms of what they want. The only absolute mistake you can make here in my opinion is getting an older wear device without the extra ram, you want the 3100 and the 1 gig; that's a must have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is really good feedback. Maybe I should look at some Android Wear options again. I extended the life of my S3 by replacing the battery, and it is still a stellar option but one thing I always disliked was poor integration with Google Maps (relies or 3rd party app). It would be much better to have something native, closer to what one would encounter on an Apple Watch.
The Gen 5 is pretty good especially if you can get it for less than regular. It was $172 a few weeks ago on Amazon. I've had it since August and it's not perfect but I think very good. Battery isn't an issue for me as I just top off in the morning while getting ready and when I get home from work, a good 14-15 hours later with usually 40% or so to spare.
Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
I've had the Sammy s2 and s3, and I DID like them a lot, at least at first. They were smooth and the battery life was good, but, the OS and features seemed pretty basic. I hated the workout app, and the only other offerings were terrible. Also, Samsung support suuuccckkks... It was like talking so someone who was just hired and had no idea what they were talking about.
Anyway, I have a Fossil Q Explorist 4 HR and I love it. It IS a little jittery sometimes, so you should definitely go with a gen 5, but it's great. Tons of apps to choose from, it looks great (I wear it to the office even), and battery life is almost on par with the s3. I take it off the charger at around 6:30am and at 10pm I typically have 40-ish% left. It would certainly last a full day.
One word of warning if someone might be setting their sights on a Ticwatch Pro: Get the LTE even if you don't want to use LTE because it has the extra RAM, the older version that is not LTE does not have it and it suffers from the sluggish GUI problem that all Wear watches had up until the recent offerings with the upped RAM. I know it's tempting because the LTE version is more expensive but you really, really, want that RAM, it completely alters the user experience while manipulating the GUI. Much, much smoother, apps load faster, etc.
Pebble Time Steel in Gold! Until a watch that can match the battery life (10 days!) + features comes along, I'll be sticking with my Pebble. Recently picked up another Gold, because my 4 year old one finally had the battery worn out too much, and also got a black one too.
krabman said:
One word of warning if someone might be setting their sights on a Ticwatch Pro: Get the LTE even if you don't want to use LTE because it has the extra RAM
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Yes definitely this. 1GB RAM makes the difference. I believe it has the old 2100 processor but that's not really much a factor for performance as RAM is.
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ryandanger said:
Pebble Time Steel in Gold! Until a watch that can match the battery life (10 days!) + features comes along, I'll be sticking with my Pebble. Recently picked up another Gold, because my 4 year old one finally had the battery worn out too much, and also got a black one too.
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Classic. I got the original Pebble when it was on Kickstarter.
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I bought the Fossil Carlyle on sale and it's really been great and it came with 3 watch bands that swap out easily. I had a Moto 360 Gen 2 that fell apart a few months ago so I was in the market. I just looked at the new Moto 360 and it looks really nice. The price tag is a little over the top at $350 but it should come down. I'm a little gun shy when it comes to Moto since the support was horrendous previously. Hopefully, it's gotten better.
Yep, the old Ticwatch pro uses the 2100 so it doesn't have the co-processor for ambient mode like the 3100. In their case they have the second display which also uses little power so it negates some of the loss but not all of it as the ambient isn't as efficient as it can be with a 3100 and lacks the 16 colors, adaptive brightness on ambient, etc. Still it doesn't change the performance when manipulating the GUI where both are using the same A7s so the felt performance is similar to a 3100 when the extra ram is in the mix.
The 3100 offers nothing in terms of a performance increase. It is literally a 2100 then Qualcomm slapped on the coprocessor and called it a day. The major difference will come from the extra gig of RAM which WearOS desperately needs. When you compare a 512 MB device to a 1GB device the performance difference is quite staggering. I have the TW Pro 4G using the JanJan rom and I couldn't be happier with the performance. Ball is still in Google's court to make something out of WearOS and for Qualcomm to stop being lazy scumbags.