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I just have to write that I came across this phone last week end. I was looking to purchase the Sony Xperia S for a family member, I have just purchased myself the Sony Xperia Z and truly like the phone. Could not get the Sony S but while browsing in the store I noticed the LG. I read the specs and thought the price must have been a mistake. I purchased it on the spot and can only write I am amazed at this best kept secret!
Its simply incredible value for money. Same CPU power as my Sony and the screen is amazing.
How on earth has this mobile not been better advertised? Quad core and all the extras for half the price of my Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note! Quality wise to my eye they are one and the same though the Sony Z knocks them all for six in this respect BUT so it should its an expensive mobile.
I have read some of the usual gripes here regarding this phone and some are fair comment while others are the usual silly remarks. I ponder what some of the whiners would recommend at this price range? I am a regular techno junkie and accidently found this LG and am amazed by it.
Well done LG, maybe LG should do an awful lot more marketing?
Thank god there are people who think the same, rather than complain all day.
Sent from my (V20A, Unlocked, Rooted, CWM, Optimised) LG-P880 using xda app.
Ryland Johnson said:
I just have to write that I came across this phone last week end. I was looking to purchase the Sony Xperia S for a family member, I have just purchased myself the Sony Xperia Z and truly like the phone. Could not get the Sony S but while browsing in the store I noticed the LG. I read the specs and thought the price must have been a mistake. I purchased it on the spot and can only write I am amazed at this best kept secret!
Its simply incredible value for money. Same CPU power as my Sony and the screen is amazing.
How on earth has this mobile not been better advertised? Quad core and all the extras for half the price of my Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note! Quality wise to my eye they are one and the same though the Sony Z knocks them all for six in this respect BUT so it should its an expensive mobile.
I have read some of the usual gripes here regarding this phone and some are fair comment while others are the usual silly remarks. I ponder what some of the whiners would recommend at this price range? I am a regular techno junkie and accidently found this LG and am amazed by it.
Well done LG, maybe LG should do an awful lot more marketing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm guessing they don't do more marketing because, when the phone was their flagship, pricing wasn't as attractive as now. Now that it's this attractive, they have their Optimus G out and their G Pro on the way, so this one is too low on the list for any marketing investment from LG.
On the other hand, the stores that sell them for these extremely competitive prices should do a bit more marketing about this one
BTW, where did you get it and for how much?
Love this phone, sure s3 has regular updates and better support from gameloft, but its £27 vs £18 a month on the cheapest site I found
Sent from my rooted P880
I suppose people actually describing what their problems are, in detail, would be helpful.
And I don't see why we should try to help LG market their own products. (Even if I know how these companies tend to work - "Aah, we have 50 complaints about the 4x and the tegra3 from people on the internet, but our Snapdragon product for a limited market with a contract that you need to be braindead to sign up for gets loads of praise! Cancel the tegra stuff now, because l33tr000tclock thinks tegra3 lags!!1elevenseses!").
But yeah, the OP is right. Definitely very good value for the money. The best value for the money, even. Still surprised by how thick and plastic the competing phones are, for example.. Or the praise for the Sony screens - love that one. "It's a bravia screen, so it's good and expensive".. no, it's a backlit led/superled2 screen made in China, like all the rest. Which Sony deemed was sufficient for production units.
And manufacturers make a lot of bad choices like that from a consumer perspective. LG has made several "business-choices" like that earlier as well. So no complaining isn't really going to help, to put it like that. People who make informed purchases tend to be happier customers, after all.
Still - yes, you'd think LG would advertise this phone a bit better, if they knew what was good for them, right? That they'd say: look, here's an expensive screen we made, that has the touch matrix integrated in the screen layer, fantastic colours, very stable, no backlight bleeding in the picture, etc. This is the forerunner to what we imagine will be even slimmer and lighter phones in the future - perhaps one day we can integrate the circuits into the transparent layers? (<-note: actually technically possible). And the tegra3 array is the best performing kit, that also has the best battery life during load. Enjoy! Also, custom bootloader and open source! Wohoo!
You know, you'd think they would do that. But inside the industry HQs, the arguments go like this: "We need a more streamlined and cheaper design that uses the same components as everyone else, that maintains the market, so we can use the razor blade model infinitely, and get people to buy the same €400 phone year after year! So don't go making a phone that actually has the latest tech if you don't need to, for crying out loud, what are you trying to do, bankrupt us!?".
So when aberrations like the 4x turns up, that actually is a good phone (sadly, doesn't use lithium polymer battery, and didn't ditch the thick antenna module and so on - could have saved a few mm there. But outside of that, all contact points, mainboard solder, frame, construction is high above par), it won't be thought of as a product that the company should sell to earn money. It's thought of as a product that might impress enthusiasts, but which will be unsuited for sales in the general market. Even if that actually proves to not be true, and the price ends up in a very comfortable area.
Basically, you have the phone now costing less than a two-three year old htc. Loads and loads of dual-core phones that also cost more, that don't have expansion slots or a battery slot. So what will very likely be argued is that the 4x is essentially cannibalizing the market downwards. Even if the support LG has come up with for the phone, with the upcoming jellybean and open loader (for dual linux/alternate/android boots?) is very promising.
But trust me on this one - even if the entire gawker site started to cover the 4x and the linux spins, in the way they seem to want to have sex with their iphones, that still wouldn't be sufficient to change the thinking about how an "enthusiast device" can't be sold to the general consumer market, without cutting the legs off it.
Obviously that's not true - when android and alt. loaders, extra equipment, installing apps, etc., is as easy as it is -- then any reasonable person will see that we don't really have enthusiast devices any more, in any sense. Instead they average user-devices just become easier/possible to use. But that thinking persists anyway. And honestly I don't think we or "media" sites really can do much to change that.
Because when your strategy folks pull in people to test devices, they don't know anything about the hardware or the construction, right? They won't compare and say "this iron edge on the bottom of the phone is inconvenient! Get rid of it!". Instead they say: "I like this iron edge a bit better than the other one!"..
Xenogenics said:
Thank god there are people who think the same, rather than complain all day.
Sent from my (V20A, Unlocked, Rooted, CWM, Optimised) LG-P880 using xda app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know right!
skryptus said:
I'm guessing they don't do more marketing because, when the phone was their flagship, pricing wasn't as attractive as now. Now that it's this attractive, they have their Optimus G out and their G Pro on the way, so this one is too low on the list for any marketing investment from LG.
On the other hand, the stores that sell them for these extremely competitive prices should do a bit more marketing about this one
BTW, where did you get it and for how much?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure where you live but here in the netherlands it ALWAYS has bin way cheaper then the htc one x and was and still is the best bang for the bucks.
Hi,
I am an unfortunate owner of this POS. I also own a Pebble.
The battery life is 1 - 2 days. I knew this going in, but if you use it a lot outdoors (and have to turn the brightness up) then its much closer to 1 day.
The apps are terrible. Beyond terrible. Most dont work properly or at all. Eg. Evernote "recent notes", Tweet QuickView (which simply doesnt work - see my review and vendor reply on the app store.).
Notifications (surely the only thing that I *need* a smart watch for?) are pathetic. If I get a GMail, a Tweet etc then it tells me to look at it on the phone. I cannot add other apps into the notifications list... so Tapatalk, my own Android apps etc cannot send even a notification prompt to the phone.
Camera is poor quality and useless. Speaker is too quiet to use for calls (not that you would want to) and the Media Controller is not some clever OS level change - it just plays whatever music app is in "ongoing notifications". Same as Pebble and Augmented Smartwatch etc. So sometimes you dont play the media you want.
Do not buy this product. There is nothing good about it at all.
Neil
RealEvil_UK said:
Hi,
I am an unfortunate owner of this POS. I also own a Pebble.
The battery life is 1 - 2 days. I knew this going in, but if you use it a lot outdoors (and have to turn the brightness up) then its much closer to 1 day.
The apps are terrible. Beyond terrible. Most dont work properly or at all. Eg. Evernote "recent notes", Tweet QuickView (which simply doesnt work - see my review and vendor reply on the app store.).
Notifications (surely the only thing that I *need* a smart watch for?) are pathetic. If I get a GMail, a Tweet etc then it tells me to look at it on the phone. I cannot add other apps into the notifications list... so Tapatalk, my own Android apps etc cannot send even a notification prompt to the phone.
Camera is poor quality and useless. Speaker is too quiet to use for calls (not that you would want to) and the Media Controller is not some clever OS level change - it just plays whatever music app is in "ongoing notifications". Same as Pebble and Augmented Smartwatch etc. So sometimes you dont play the media you want.
Do not buy this product. There is nothing good about it at all.
Neil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you just purchase it or??? If you just purchased it today you should take it back. I thought about purchasing it but I am going to wait. I usually jump on first gen stuff but I had the Inpulse watch, I had the Wim Labs prototype, I had the playbook (and see how that turned out).
I hope there are other people that will chime in about this. FWIW, I also think the pebble is crap. The support, I hear, is the same lousy support the company provided for the Inpulse watch.
Not surprised a bit
RealEvil_UK said:
Hi,
I am an unfortunate owner of this POS. I also own a Pebble.
The battery life is 1 - 2 days. I knew this going in, but if you use it a lot outdoors (and have to turn the brightness up) then its much closer to 1 day.
The apps are terrible. Beyond terrible. Most dont work properly or at all. Eg. Evernote "recent notes", Tweet QuickView (which simply doesnt work - see my review and vendor reply on the app store.).
Notifications (surely the only thing that I *need* a smart watch for?) are pathetic. If I get a GMail, a Tweet etc then it tells me to look at it on the phone. I cannot add other apps into the notifications list... so Tapatalk, my own Android apps etc cannot send even a notification prompt to the phone.
Camera is poor quality and useless. Speaker is too quiet to use for calls (not that you would want to) and the Media Controller is not some clever OS level change - it just plays whatever music app is in "ongoing notifications". Same as Pebble and Augmented Smartwatch etc. So sometimes you dont play the media you want.
Do not buy this product. There is nothing good about it at all.
Neil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sucks to hear , the notifications seem like crap but apparently need to be updated by vendor. Someone mentioned a new API that would allow a 3rd party to setup a notification system. No idea how they could launch with such limited notifications.
Can you upload some camera and video samples ? One mans crap is another mans "ok"
xManMythLegend said:
Sucks to hear , the notifications seem like crap but apparently need to be updated by vendor. Someone mentioned a new API that would allow a 3rd party to setup a notification system. No idea how they could launch with such limited notifications.
Can you upload some camera and video samples ? One mans crap is another mans "ok"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate to fan the fire between us but having read your mail I find myself asking if YOU actually own one? Why do you keep asking for pictures?
---------- Post added at 09:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:07 PM ----------
RealEvil_UK said:
Hi,
I am an unfortunate owner of this POS. I also own a Pebble.
The battery life is 1 - 2 days. I knew this going in, but if you use it a lot outdoors (and have to turn the brightness up) then its much closer to 1 day.
The apps are terrible. Beyond terrible. Most dont work properly or at all. Eg. Evernote "recent notes", Tweet QuickView (which simply doesnt work - see my review and vendor reply on the app store.).
Notifications (surely the only thing that I *need* a smart watch for?) are pathetic. If I get a GMail, a Tweet etc then it tells me to look at it on the phone. I cannot add other apps into the notifications list... so Tapatalk, my own Android apps etc cannot send even a notification prompt to the phone.
Camera is poor quality and useless. Speaker is too quiet to use for calls (not that you would want to) and the Media Controller is not some clever OS level change - it just plays whatever music app is in "ongoing notifications". Same as Pebble and Augmented Smartwatch etc. So sometimes you dont play the media you want.
Do not buy this product. There is nothing good about it at all.
Neil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unsure what you where expecting. I am unhappy with the gear also but for different reasons. Oddly enough I have experienced zero software problems to date.
With care and respect I have to ask what you expected from the camera? Jeez its a toy and more or less just for fund snaps. I have this thing about phone cameras. I love photography so use a DSLR. I know little about the art but do know one cannot seriously expect great photos from a mobile phone., or wrist watch in this case.
It is sad as yet again I feel a major brand has introduced to a market a product that is not user ready. I mean the IP is IP55!! Water and this watch are not friends.
At present I am enjoying the learning curve and new toy. I said before I purchased it that it would end up collecting dust in some draw before long. Lets see. BTW I bought mine on the 27th and the battery only needed a charge this afternoon? £ days of decent usage and experimenting.
I expected to need to recharge every night. Not the case so far.
Don't set me of regarding the quality of that strap
In your shoes I would return it for a refund. Problem is for this type of device this is as good as it gets.
Kind regards..
I look forward to getting mine next week, but I will have 14 days to check it out and by the sounds of things I may not be happy (time will tell) and if I am not I will just return it and get something else.
BTW there is always the Omate TrueSmart watch which can be used without a SIM and is competely water proof.
Ryland Johnson said:
I hate to fan the fire between us but having read your mail I find myself asking if YOU actually own one? Why do you keep asking for pictures?
---------- Post added at 09:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:07 PM ----------
Unsure what you where expecting. I am unhappy with the gear also but for different reasons. Oddly enough I have experienced zero software problems to date.
With care and respect I have to ask what you expected from the camera? Jeez its a toy and more or less just for fund snaps. I have this thing about phone cameras. I love photography so use a DSLR. I know little about the art but do know one cannot seriously expect great photos from a mobile phone., or wrist watch in this case.
It is sad as yet again I feel a major brand has introduced to a market a product that is not user ready. I mean the IP is IP55!! Water and this watch are not friends.
At present I am enjoying the learning curve and new toy. I said before I purchased it that it would end up collecting dust in some draw before long. Lets see. BTW I bought mine on the 27th and the battery only needed a charge this afternoon? £ days of decent usage and experimenting.
I expected to need to recharge every night. Not the case so far.
Don't set me of regarding the quality of that strap
In your shoes I would return it for a refund. Problem is for this type of device this is as good as it gets.
Kind regards..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
he would return if he actully bought one....these are usually paid trolls by other companies....if i have bought sometime and im not satisfy with it.i will just take it back and not write stupid stuff about it.(beauty is eye of the beholder)i may not like something that dont mean the other person wont like it.
Ryland Johnson said:
I hate to fan the fire between us but having read your mail I find myself asking if YOU actually own one? Why do you keep asking for pictures?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously I do not which is why I have given no opinion on it.
He started a thread claiming the picture and video quality being poor. Why wouldn't I ask for samples?
It's crazy to just take everyone's opinion and not ask for something tangible.
When people make negative threads they should expect to back-up claims.
Also I have taken no offense to your posts.
Hi,
The Samsung Experience Store in Westfield Shopping Centre (in London) told me that I cannot have a refund. I am now arguing with them that the product is defective as its clearly not "ready to be sold and is therefore defective". To be honest I am not going to stress too much on it as I *only* paid £200 as I bought with a Note 3 (which I love) and due to a pre-order offer I got a total of £100 savings for buying the 2 together. I will sell it on eBay if I have to and probably not lose much. And in case you cannot detect the cynicism - I do feel cheated that I spent £200 on this device as the only way to get it for this price was to pre-order it BEFORE the release, which meant I couldn't try the device before pre-ordering and pre-paying. As soon as I used it for more than a day I phoned them up and they told me that they do not accept returns for anything that is not defective.
Do you really need me to give you a photo sample? Reviews are full of them. The watch strap camera is poor. I didn't expect more, but it takes awful photos in anything other than good light. This is inline with my expectations going in, but it doesn't make it any less of a half baked feature.
The Apps are dreadful. Most S-Voice commands dont work via the watch. Whoever said they got 4 days battery life has had a very different experience to me. The battery life is very much linked to the screen brightness from my experience - and anything less that full brightness is not very readable outdoors. Indoors with low brightness I guess its possible that I would get 4 days... but I dont think I will own the device long enough to really test it.
RealEvil_UK said:
Hi,
The Samsung Experience Store in Westfield Shopping Centre (in London) told me that I cannot have a refund. I am now arguing with them that the product is defective as its clearly not "ready to be sold and is therefore defective". To be honest I am not going to stress too much on it as I *only* paid £200 as I bought with a Note 3 (which I love) and due to a pre-order offer I got a total of £100 savings for buying the 2 together. I will sell it on eBay if I have to and probably not lose much. And in case you cannot detect the cynicism - I do feel cheated that I spent £200 on this device as the only way to get it for this price was to pre-order it BEFORE the release, which meant I couldn't try the device before pre-ordering and pre-paying. As soon as I used it for more than a day I phoned them up and they told me that they do not accept returns for anything that is not defective.
Do you really need me to give you a photo sample? Reviews are full of them. The watch strap camera is poor. I didn't expect more, but it takes awful photos in anything other than good light. This is inline with my expectations going in, but it doesn't make it any less of a half baked feature.
The Apps are dreadful. Most S-Voice commands dont work via the watch. Whoever said they got 4 days battery life has had a very different experience to me. The battery life is very much linked to the screen brightness from my experience - and anything less that full brightness is not very readable outdoors. Indoors with low brightness I guess its possible that I would get 4 days... but I dont think I will own the device long enough to really test it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i totally not agree with you
we just have to wait... and i can explain you why
(before all, sorry for my bad english)
the notifications works bad, i agree, BUT it's a software problem that (hopefully) will be fixed by 3rd party apps
an example? do you use Line?
if you don't use it please throw whatsapp into the garbage and try line
Line has an app for the gear that not only shows very beautiful notifications style, but let you reply with some pre-selected stickers.
we just have to wait for software houses to update and code their own notification app
i'm confident this will happen soon
the gear have a GREAT potential... something that pebble doesn't have (i've got the pebble too)
let's wait a bit... it's out since few days.
PS: battery time 2 days for me
Yes, when someone on XDA says photos are garbage then photos are requisite.
I saw pics and videos and comments were nowhere near as negative as yours. If you post pics perhaps some kind of flaw or problem with your unit can be revealed. Or we come to the conclusion your "taste" is different from others.
You guys think way too highly of your "opinions" and expect them to be taken as gospel. Make a claim back it up let others scrutinize. That's how things work, that's how problems, bugs, hardware flaws get exposed. Not "it's garbage trust me".
Gear could be the crappiest waste ever... But if you say it is... Show people why.
faremoney said:
i totally not agree with you
we just have to wait... and i can explain you why
(before all, sorry for my bad english)
the notifications works bad, i agree, BUT it's a software problem that (hopefully) will be fixed by 3rd party apps
an example? do you use Line?
if you don't use it please throw whatsapp into the garbage and try line
Line has an app for the gear that not only shows very beautiful notifications style, but let you reply with some pre-selected stickers.
we just have to wait for software houses to update and code their own notification app
i'm confident this will happen soon
the gear have a GREAT potential... something that pebble doesn't have (i've got the pebble too)
let's wait a bit... it's out since few days.
PS: battery time 2 days for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I dont think that anyone - not even Samsung - can release a brand new product which *requires* 3rd party app developers to do something to support it. Why would Google bother to update GMail to support a few thousand watch owners? I wouldn't.
What Samsung should have implemented - just like a lot of the supporting apps for Pebble (e.g. Augmented SmartWatch Pro) - is to "scrape" all notifications and allow them ALL to be sent to the watch. This way, 3rd party app developers don't *have* to do anything. They only have to write apps for the device if they wish to offer something extra.
RealEvil_UK said:
Hi, I dont think that anyone - not even Samsung - can release a brand new product which *requires* 3rd party app developers to do something to support it. Why would Google bother to update GMail to support a few thousand watch owners? I wouldn't.
What Samsung should have implemented - just like a lot of the supporting apps for Pebble (e.g. Augmented SmartWatch Pro) - is to "scrape" all notifications and allow them ALL to be sent to the watch. This way, 3rd party app developers don't *have* to do anything. They only have to write apps for the device if they wish to offer something extra.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes but in the moment we are talking, ebay JUST released Ebay for Gear.... and it works beautifully
and remember there is a market out there... the apps can be free or paid, so who comes first can find an open market... :good:
This product wont be a success. Samsung will learn from it and release a updated model with wider Android support and for half the price within the next 6 - 12 months. That v2 product will probably be worth considering, but I feel cheated as a v1 owner that this product has been very poorly thought out and is effectively a alpha product/proof of concept.
The most basic functionality of Smart Watch - to me at least - is notifications. Custom apps are potentially interesting but not the "vital" feature that I could use 20 - 50 times a day. And in this regard, the Galaxy Gear is a terrible failure.
I think, I don't know, that a number of us are disappointed with the gear for several reasons.
Most of us made this a re order purchase mea culpa, to this end not only where any hands on reviews thin on the ground but until launch date non of us even knew what it would even look like.
Again I guess, It is perhaps significant that many of us purchased the Note 3 and the Gear as a pre order purchase at a discount price. Like many here I made a saving on the Gear by purchasing the two items together. Call me suspicious but perhaps and only perhaps, Samsung knew this was very much a project in the making and sold the Gear discounted knowing it would soften the blow? This is of course pure conjecture.
I made this purchase for several reasons. I have enjoyed my past Samsung mobiles, the Nexus S, SGS2, 3 and Note 1. I am a gadget freak, love the stuff always have. Lastly I collect watches, that's in by blood.
One can imagine my response when a new mobile AND watch came out together. Geek nirvana.
The Gear IS expensive, its not a cheapo try it and bin it. IF the concept had worked it would have been acceptable. With due respect to Samsung I cant see this as a consumer ready device.
Okay. The camera. Again with due respect and care for the OP I am unsure what any of us could reasonably expect from a 1,9 MP camera?
Its a sales gimmick and something to use to snap a quick shot, though even that doesn't work.
What does concern me the most is that strap and clasp. The clasp is the type that has a history of being the most problematic and is generally found on the cheaper end of the market for watches if used at all these days. When we close the clasp and here that 'click' that sound is made by a tiny piece of pressed steel bending slightly into a hole and binding with the other half of the clasp. What happens is after time that tiny tiny piece of metal weakens and eventually no longer 'clicks' into place.
What customers then do is try to bend it back so it again will hold and this further weakens the pressed steel part. I wont write again about the material used to produce the strap-under body as I simply cannot for see the future. What I can guess, again, is this strap is perhaps not going to last too long, it just doesn't feel durable and is certainly not vulcanised rubber. The strap is an integral part of the watch and cannot thus be replaced, hence my over concern regarding the strap.
As for the software, I am still learning how to use it and have come across some possible flaws BUT it may be ignorance on my part and until I read the manual and try to resolve the problem I am experiencing I will not complain.
Lastly I do agree with those owners who suggest this is very much a work in progress and should perhaps have been delayed for further development until at least the water resistance could be improved etc....
ALL opinion form an owner. Time is going to be the best teacher.
Kind regards.
Here is my take on this. I don't own Gear, yet, and my opinion is based on reading other reviews and opinions and in general based on the fact that I review gadgets on XDA as a full time hobby (check out link in my signature ).
A success of smartwatch is based on hardware and software. So far the main gripe I heard about hardware is battery life which to my pleasant surprise people reporting to as lasting1-2 days rather then "less then a day", all that with typical use or perhaps higher then average since everybody wants to play with camera. I suspect that might even improve with some software optimization in the future. Other then that, I also heard some people saying wristband is not was they expected (in terms of material) - oh well, this is not your typical $500-$1000 watch but rather an electronic gadget you strap to your wrist. So basically most of the complains are with software which we all know going to be fixed, sooner (from Samsung) or later (maybe even with some rooting or custom ROM, etc.) Once 4.3 updates start rolling in to cover S3/S4/N2 users and US market going to see N3 release that's when the real "beta" testing going to start. Right now, you guys are alpha-testers, early technology adopters. Everyone's expectations was that it will work straight out of the box. Well, it happened to some extent but not 100%. I'm sure the improvement will happen in the next few months, just have to be patient if you decide to stick around and keep this smartwatch.
Just my 2 cents.
RealEvil_UK said:
Hi, I dont think that anyone - not even Samsung - can release a brand new product which *requires* 3rd party app developers to do something to support it. Why would Google bother to update GMail to support a few thousand watch owners? I wouldn't.
What Samsung should have implemented - just like a lot of the supporting apps for Pebble (e.g. Augmented SmartWatch Pro) - is to "scrape" all notifications and allow them ALL to be sent to the watch. This way, 3rd party app developers don't *have* to do anything. They only have to write apps for the device if they wish to offer something extra.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android 4.3 has the APIs to do just that.
I'm working on that app right now. Will keep XDA updated with progress
vectron said:
Here is my take on this. I don't own Gear, yet, and my opinion is based on reading other reviews and opinions and in general based on the fact that I review gadgets on XDA as a full time hobby (check out link in my signature ).
A success of smartwatch is based on hardware and software. So far the main gripe I heard about hardware is battery life which to my pleasant surprise people reporting to as lasting1-2 days rather then "less then a day", all that with typical use or perhaps higher then average since everybody wants to play with camera. I suspect that might even improve with some software optimization in the future. Other then that, I also heard some people saying wristband is not was they expected (in terms of material) - oh well, this is not your typical $500-$1000 watch but rather an electronic gadget you strap to your wrist. So basically most of the complains are with software which we all know going to be fixed, sooner (from Samsung) or later (maybe even with some rooting or custom ROM, etc.) Once 4.3 updates start rolling in to cover S3/S4/N2 users and US market going to see N3 release that's when the real "beta" testing going to start. Right now, you guys are alpha-testers, early technology adopters. Everyone's expectations was that it will work straight out of the box. Well, it happened to some extent but not 100%. I'm sure the improvement will happen in the next few months, just have to be patient if you decide to stick around and keep this smartwatch.
Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I will 'try' one more time....The strap. The cost of the Gear is immaterial in terms of the strap. What is vital is the strap lasts so the watch can function. No strap no watch? The watch could be 50.00€-500,000.00€ BUT once that strap goes so does the watch, its a non replaceable part. I just cant explain this point any clearer.
Regards
Personally I am holding off on this watch for two main reasons... One may be possible with third party apps, the other can't. I am not a fan of svoice and want to be able to type a reply to a text vs saying it. Most of the time I am at work and don't want svoice going off and talking to my watch to send a replay of "lol" or "ok". Omate has a keyboard but I hate the look of it. Second is the camera... I wish they made a gear without a camera. That hump on the strap is so ugly. I want the watch to look semi professional and that hump kills it. Wish I could combine omate and gear... Would be perfect for me.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2
Wow, just got a call from Samsung who have agreed to take the watch back and give me a refund. Nice.
As a few people have commented - it will get better. But I am not sure Samsung will have the patience for this particular model, and they will likely release much better hardware within then next 6 - 9 months.
They could massively improve the device via software updates - no question. But I think they can only really do this by taking a step back and starting with the position that no app maker should have to *do* anything for it to be compatible with the Smart Watch. THIS is where the device needs to start. At the very least, all notifications should be on the watch and ideally actionable. Surely thats a better starting position than with a App Store model that no big app developer will bother with?
I just picked up a Gear a few hours ago, and all I can say is WOW. After reading all the negative
reviews, I was expecting a quick look and then a return to the store, but after playing with this watch
for the last few hours, I have come away VERY impressed. This is the 4th smart watch I've owned,
and it's head and shoulders above the ones I used previously (MetaWatch, Wimm Labs, and Sony 2nd Gen).
Those watches all had their plusses and minuses, but this watch it a much more complete package. And it
should be, since it's not cheap. But still a lot cheaper than the Tag and Omega that I have
First off, the look is great. I got the jet black version, and it has a very understated tech look. It fits great on my wrist,
and is very light.
Second, everything I have tried so far works, and works the way I would expect it to. Calling, charging, s-voice, and all
the apps I have tried. The camera is great, and works well with the wine label app. The display is gorgeous, much
better than the displays on the previous smart watches I've tried.
My long term concerns will be battery life and sustained connectivity, which were 2 of the biggest issues I had with
other smart watches. If it can pass those tests, then it's a keeper.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I wonder if a lot of the reviewers that just destroyed this watch don't have a little heartburn
that Apple wasn't first to market. This watch will get very good very fast if they add apps quickly to the market.
I'll finish by saying that if you're on the fence on this watch, pick it up. If you temper your expectations (don't expect a DSLR
on your wrist, understand that 3rd party apps may be limited initially and sometimes buggy), you'll be very happy with it...
glad to hear your enjoying yours.
yes it does come off as weird why these tech sites are very eager to proclaim it as failure or DOA. we shall see though who is right but based on the reviews here its not as piss poor as they make it out to be.
theverge even called it samsung's worst product
j4falcons said:
I just picked up a Gear a few hours ago, and all I can say is WOW. After reading all the negative
reviews, I was expecting a quick look and then a return to the store, but after playing with this watch
for the last few hours, I have come away VERY impressed. This is the 4th smart watch I've owned,
and it's head and shoulders above the ones I used previously (MetaWatch, Wimm Labs, and Sony 2nd Gen).
Those watches all had their plusses and minuses, but this watch it a much more complete package. And it
should be, since it's not cheap. But still a lot cheaper than the Tag and Omega that I have
First off, the look is great. I got the jet black version, and it has a very understated tech look. It fits great on my wrist,
and is very light.
Second, everything I have tried so far works, and works the way I would expect it to. Calling, charging, s-voice, and all
the apps I have tried. The camera is great, and works well with the wine label app. The display is gorgeous, much
better than the displays on the previous smart watches I've tried.
My long term concerns will be battery life and sustained connectivity, which were 2 of the biggest issues I had with
other smart watches. If it can pass those tests, then it's a keeper.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I wonder if a lot of the reviewers that just destroyed this watch don't have a little heartburn
that Apple wasn't first to market. This watch will get very good very fast if they add apps quickly to the market.
I'll finish by saying that if you're on the fence on this watch, pick it up. If you temper your expectations (don't expect a DSLR
on your wrist, understand that 3rd party apps may be limited initially and sometimes buggy), you'll be very happy with it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree, I got my watch on Saturday and I have to say that I'm impressed and that's amazing considering I pair it with GS3 and some features still don't work! It was quite amusing today in the office with people couldn't actually believe it was real lots of iphone owners asking would it work with their phone ! I'm not sure why all those negative reviws, not sure what people expected, but if you take it for what it is - it's an amazing piece of technology! By the way, I charged it last night and got home tonight and it was on 70% battery - that's much better than what I hoped for!
I also think the watch is much better than how major tech reviewers are rating it in their reviews.
Pros:
1. Good looking design with some choice material- Sapphire glass, brushed stainless steel and high quality band
2. Very nice display
3. Smooth and lag-free operation
4. Nice and tight integration with smartphone
5. More than acceptable phone and camera capability
6. Limited to Note 3 for the moment ( this pro is applicable to me as a Note 3 user for a while~ )
7. Great to have the event and message reminder via a gentle vibration on the wrist!
8. Built-in pedometer and health apps
Neutral:
1. Battery performance- acceptable for a day's operation but could use a bit of margin.
2. Wrist band- acceptable but would be nice to have the flexibility to change the color
Cons:
1. Insufficient notification support for Gmail and Facebook apps (SW)
2. No calculator! (SW)
3. No compass (SW, HW?)
4. No on-screen keyboard (They could've put together a creative keyboard layout to fit the wonderful screen for sure ) (SW)
5. High price
6. Limited choice of phone models (only if Samsung wants this product to succeed on its own merit, that is. With Samsung selling twice as many smartphones as Apple now, I don't see any reason why they need to make the watches compatible to other brand phones necessarily, as it can be yet another reason to buy a Samsung phone for those on the fence.) SW
So, really, other than the relatively high price, I don't see critical shortcomings of this watch that can't be fixed by software updates and apps support down the road. The knock-on feature of G2 would be nice to have on this watch to wake it up and shut it down as necessary, in addition to the motion sensor-based wake on feature that it already has.
they should hurry with the updates, I can see this gaining more traction with more phones
Lets not forget what the critics said about the original Note 1. The press hammered that mobile yet it went on to give birth to a whole new generation,, the 'phablet'. Many brands have tried to copy the idea but non have come even close to selling the amount Samsung has and the note is now in its third year and on the third iteration having sold millions.
Smart watches in general have not yet been taken to by the market. This is in reality the first truly smart watch. Other brands will now rapidly try to play catch up as they have with the Note 1
In terms of Android devices Samsung appear to date to be the innovators in terms of technology.
Regards
Only issues are small software related ones. I am getting great battery life. Give it a little time for some developers to fill the gaps on the notification side.
Heck, the pebble is only really useful with 3rd party apps like Pebblify, so I don't know why people are so hard on the Gear.
I agree, it is a great product and a keeper here. (Had a Sony 1st gen. before.)
Battery life is better than expected. Keeps running for 2 days easily (brightness 2 / sound off).
Screen is excellent, performance sufficient.
More apps wanted now.
One of very few better-written reviews of the Gear:
http://www.zdnet.com/galaxy-gear-re...companion-watch-for-note-3-owners-7000021316/
There will be no tl;dr here so if you're not into long rants this may not be the topic for you.
Smart phone manufacturers think we're raccoons. Or idiots. Possibly both. Idiotic raccoons for the purpose of this rant. I liked it when Apple was the only company that made premium but dumb phones. I liked that they only gave users 1GB to 2GB of RAM, because what were they going to use it up on? But now, EVERYONE is doing it. They take whatever level of affordable hardware they can get away with and then wrap it in aluminum/glass and send it out touting refinement of the brand. The only thing they "refined" was their ability to market things that shouldn't even be sold. These phones are supposed to be built by ENGINEERING teams and engineers are supposed to innovate and solve problems. And there are plenty of problems with the cell phone that need to be addressed. A few examples:
Texting and driving:
How is safety with these devices not at the top of the list for these companies? People cannot help themselves when it comes to looking at their phones. I did a quick survey of 10 cars coming onto my campus and 4 out of 10 were texting near a crosswalk. 40% as a sample of the population on my campus who would rather look at their phone than look out for people walking or riding their bikes. I guess barreling down the road at 60 mph doesn't give people the thrill it used to so now we're adding the thrill of driving with one hand busy and not looking. What an exciting time to be a pedestrian. For the love of all that is holy in this world use the GPS technology in the phone to detect speeds over 20mph and lock the screen until it stops. And if you need your GPS for directions you open the app before you move and it replaces your lockscreen blocking usage of the rest of the phone. And before someone jumps in here yelling, "government overreach!" cool your jets, there is a reason seatbelts are not an optional feature in your car. The CDC reports that 9 people, per day in the U.S., die because of distracted driving SOURCE: http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/distracted_driving/. I would bet that a few a of those deaths are people who aren't in the car at all, but walking somewhere and hit by someone who doesn't have the common courtesy to drive like their life, or other people's lives, depended on it.
Texting and walking:
If you do this you're probably going to be hit by the cars I mentioned above.
Thermal Throttling:
A genuine issue with modern smartphone processors. We are to the point where transistor traces are 14nm apart and yet our only method of heat dissipation is the wind. That's preposterous. Engineering majors are required to take thermodynamics and it's because heat is a real issue. But you're telling me that allowing heat to just be carried away passively is the best we can do in a several billion dollar industry? My laptop is 13mm thick and has an active fan when plugged in and a passive fan on battery power with 10 hour battery life pushing 1080P. Smartphone manufacturers just aren't doing it because it isn't sleek and sexy. And why do I think they should be cooled? This thing is supposed to replace every device in my living room and be near me 24 hours a day. Why is is that I get frame rate drops when I'm enjoying one of my favorite games? Oh yeah, it is because my processor decides that it gets too hot and stops running as fast as it was before. Oh, and that "advertised speed" you paid all that money for? Really only reaches its peak when you'e browsing the web or doing less intense activities. If any of our other serious electronics did that, we would throw them out. Your game consoles and desktop PC's run at full speed until they reach their thermal threshold and then shut off. They don't vary their speed in intensive tasks, they go hard until they can't go any further and they shut down. Hell if your microwave changed power settings while heating your dinner and you had to wait an extra 2 minutes to get your food you would have it replaced. In a world demanding more battery life, I demand better cooling and maintained top speeds for CPUs and GPUs while gaming.
Aesthetics:
While I never wanted an Apple phone I always respected that they decided to make an uncomplicated operating system, wrapped in a very professional package and served to the masses as "premium". What I don't understand is why innovation is being stymied in the name of "premium" feel? When people in this forum heard that the new Nexus 6P was going to have the Snapdragon 810 in it, they almost in unison said there was no way they would buy a phone with that processor. In fact, response was so bad that LG refused to put an 810 in any of their devices (bravo!). However, now that the 6P is out and it looks "premium" people are rescinding on their stance about how they won't buy one. It's like a phone being pretty is enough to forgive it for being partly broken on the inside. Now that I've written that, it seems like a deeper human issue, but back on topic we lamented as a community about how 2015 was the worst year for cell phones and that seems to be changing with those same people considering the 6P. And that isn't my only example. let's take the Galaxy Note 5/S6/6Edge+ (now with plus sign!) and pay attention to what they did in the marketing department. 3 phones, identical hardware, different cases. Identical hardware at astronomically more expensive prices because the screen is larger. But the processor in the S6, which came out early this year, is in a device that came out two months ago. How are consumers who have access to this information convinced that these devices are worth more of their money. Samsung just increased their profits because they didn't have to innovate, at all, and just pushed the same old board out with a high-end screen. Example 3!: LG G4 to the LG V10 is going to have the same processor as its predecessor. It is recycling hardware used within the same year by wrapping it in a different shell and calling it "premium." What makes me sad is that people are going to buy it. Probably thousands of people and probably some people who actually already have the G4. It boggles my mind that people see this happening and just jump on the train.
Software:
This is my last piece of rant and then I'm done. Being here I love Android; anyone that knows me knows that. I will defend it and what it stands for until it betrays me in the night and locks my sweet bootloader into oblivion while hiding its source code in the dark shadows of Google's labs. But let's get down to brass tacks: there is only one Android OS and that is pure Android on Nexus devices. If your manufacturer put their name somewhere inside your software you just landed at the mercy of not one, but two teams who decide if you can have access to an open source operating system update. How is it that people are just OK with buying phones that insist the consumer like what the manufacturer thinks is aesthetically pleasing? I thought the whole point of Android was to choose how your phone was supposed to behave yourself? Why is is that we bash Apple users for accepting whatever they are given whenever they can get it and we are stuck complaining about how Samsung/LG/HTC might never release their revisions of Android to our devices? Manufacturers paid for the hardware, they didn't pay a dime for the software other than what they pay their team to change it to their liking and then we are deprived of updates because it is too much work for the teams that they put in place themselves! How hard it is to just develop device trees and pass them to Google so that pure Android runs on everyone's devices? CM does it every new release and people who purchased software from for-profit manufacturers may never see Marshmallow. This is a real problem and I know that circumstances are different but Apple supports devices for an incredibly long time before dropping it from updates. The iPad 2 was released in 2011 and it is getting updates for iOS 9 the same time as everyone else. That is 4 years of support. And the Note 3/4 are one to two years old and almost two releases behind? Software updates should not be sold as a feature (especially not open source software), it is updated to protect consumers and their personal information from being compromised and misused through security patches and release fixes. And no, not everyone can ride the train forever, I get that. But a company dropping support because they didn't think their devices would last 5 years so they didn't hire the manpower to continue making releases sounds like a corporate issue, not a consumer issue. The only thing we can do is vote with our wallets. Oh, and case in point for updates for old devices: Google is dropping support for the Nexus 4 (2012) in Android 6.0 but maintaining security patch releases so people using that device are not left open to security vulnerabilities. If you needed a reason to support a manufacturer, it would be because they support you.
Rant over. I'm just tired of reading the same articles and comments on here, being disappointed by each subsequent phone release, let down by a huge lack of innovation by smartphone manufacturers, and let down by people who continue to be part of the trend and not fight it in some way. I'm also mad at people who text and drive--cut it out. If I had an answer to fix all of these things I would post them here, but I don't. There should be a way to change the status quo of the current hardware industry and push them to innovate as opposed to buying into their hardware subscriptions plans. Hopefully you know how much you pay a year to do all that Jump!ing and upgrading of those devices. We're tethered to a yearly fee and we just let it ride.
You don't have to leave your thoughts but I'm open to them. I'm open to your own personal rants about the topic. I'm open to ideas and solutions that haven't been presented and ways to fix things that we know are broken. This community is amazing for that because we have talented people here who aren't satisfied with the idea that what you get is what you are stuck with. They work hard and use their time to make something better. There has to be answers here and a way to fix the calamity that is the smart phone market. /rant
Nice rant. I am not developer but I am with you. Got a couple of rants my self. Me to brings apple as example to look at for tey updates and I would say reliability. Both of them matters to me because I don't root and tinker and I want my phone to work well an safe for a few a couple of years at least maybe 3-4 years. I know its xda dev page but the period I had iph6 in truly got to know what is reliable and consistent in respect. So if I pay £500 for a brand new phone I expect it to work accordingly or even £200 worth phone.
O am willing tonpay phone even more than I said but in return I want brilliance O was talking aboit just like buying iPhone.
I hate oersaturated screen tendency and in general pop out colour display trend but that come from my work because I retouch photos and work on calibrated monitor . first of all I prefer panelnto be natural then I can decide if I want it to be saturated or not. At least give that choose like sammy does , I think lg does but the screen still is from ideal. I envy those sharp panels that China OEMs mounting on the phones. Anyway nothing makes me more annoyed than temporarily trends. Give us an option to choose from!
Not much reading any review on here or articles looking at other tech websites it seems they simply making business out of t, yes they have to earn BUT don't take you reader for fool. It seems just because they have writing skills they can trick us into believe phone B is a an A class phone. Luckily many of us speak out fearlessly and with much furious and I liken a lot . there are people and a lot of them tech educated. Reviewers get easily tempted into era of electronic corruption and do what they asked to do. Trustworthy reviewer is the thing of the past-dinosour.
Just about it.... I think
nebulaoperator said:
Nice rant. I am not developer but I am with you. Got a couple of rants my self. Me to brings apple as example to look at for tey updates and I would say reliability. Both of them matters to me because I don't root and tinker and I want my phone to work well an safe for a few a couple of years at least maybe 3-4 years. I know its xda dev page but the period I had iph6 in truly got to know what is reliable and consistent in respect. So if I pay £500 for a brand new phone I expect it to work accordingly or even £200 worth phone.
O am willing tonpay phone even more than I said but in return I want brilliance O was talking aboit just like buying iPhone.
I hate oersaturated screen tendency and in general pop out colour display trend but that come from my work because I retouch photos and work on calibrated monitor . first of all I prefer panelnto be natural then I can decide if I want it to be saturated or not. At least give that choose like sammy does , I think lg does but the screen still is from ideal. I envy those sharp panels that China OEMs mounting on the phones. Anyway nothing makes me more annoyed than temporarily trends. Give us an option to choose from!
Not much reading any review on here or articles looking at other tech websites it seems they simply making business out of t, yes they have to earn BUT don't take you reader for fool. It seems just because they have writing skills they can trick us into believe phone B is a an A class phone. Luckily many of us speak out fearlessly and with much furious and I liken a lot . there are people and a lot of them tech educated. Reviewers get easily tempted into era of electronic corruption and do what they asked to do. Trustworthy reviewer is the thing of the past-dinosour.
Just about it.... I think
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think a lot of screen oversaturation stems from consumers responses to reviews and critic description of what the "perfect screen" is. Consumers will agree not based on personal opinion and then OEMs try to emulate the visuals that type of screen renders.
Or Samsung dictates everything since they are the majority seller of device screens.
Thanks for adding to, I appreciate knowing what about the industry bothers other people.
AlkaliV2 said:
I think a lot of screen oversaturation stems from consumers responses to reviews and critic description of what the "perfect screen" is. Consumers will agree not based on personal opinion and then OEMs try to emulate the visuals that type of screen renders.
Or Samsung dictates everything since they are the majority seller of device screens.
Thanks for adding to, I appreciate knowing what about the industry bothers other people.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes indeed. OEM's will push trends that appeal to the mass and mass wants and craves for an eye popping colour utterly unnatural and repelling to my eye.... and when they look at the same image on the computer monitor it suddenly lost all it it's magic and now they want to go back to their phone. My background is related to colour accurate calibrated monitor and this must be the reason I don't see amoled technology so appealing to me but again hundreds of millions of iphone users are perfectly satisfied and not only but happy.
If we take Android market we have bloggers, tech websites, youtube channels. media that are constantly praising that unnatural deviation in colour. Another myth is those magic amoled blacks! No they are not great they and in fact bad because there are no shadow gradient it's just a black blob while IPS panel can't have those perfect 0 pitch blacks but what it can do is gradient from the darkest shadow to the lighter shadow. Watch a film on your phone and pay attention to the dark scene you will know what I mean.
There were 2 ocassions in my life after going round and round in circles, chasing my perfect phone I heard hundred of times : oh this amoled screen is super, it has super accurate colours like never before and though I saw that super duper screen my self I could not help my self but to go again to shop and see if there was anything I missed in my judgment. All I wanted is to run basic mode on a S6 BUT whites on the basic mode looks dull and yellowish while in wider gammut mode it pops out like never before. I checked all the possible panels in the shop. S6 S6+ S6 edge S6 edge + . Yes I am purist and it is hard living for me. I think I am just wasting time in my life My point is your mind will most likely be brainwashed and you will buy perfect amoled screen.
Indeed Samsung will push anything that is related in visual agenda because everyone knows Samsung TV and they awesome. Easy to follow and trust trendy technology or product.
I am so happy Moto choose IPS panels this year because they look marvelous a little on the saturated side but nothing overblown like other OEM's.
I don't try to sell anything I said here to anyone if you prefer other panel that is your choice and I don't have a problem with it.
Battery life
While most manufactures claim weeks of operation the truth is often obscure and bent.
I like your rant.
And I agree with all of it.
Some companies will deny overheating and shove their source code 50 miles deep into their butt.
Some devices are so pretty but have horrible hardware other are so ugly but have brilliant hardware.
I'm so sick of people just blindly buying devices that are a total joke.\
On the note of displays.
It's all pointless unless we have hardware that can drive a 50000000000000000000000K display where 90% of the pixels are so small they could never be seen.
Rant mode OFF
Really enjoy Erica's reviews, they're always much more technical and informative than the usual YouTube journo type channels:
...and yes, she went there with the benchmark "cheats"
Her final judgement seems to be a lot like mine, it has great potential so give OnePlus and the XDA community time to get their heads round it before forming an overall opinion on it, there will be a lot of updates while OnePlus try to perfect the software and features and it will most likely become a developer's favourite plaything to code for.
Nice video. GJ Erica.
One thing Erica said is that "this is particularly a nerd's phone." It got me thinking about why I ordered the OP5. I'm a nerd. I could have gotten the S8+ or Pixel XL, so why didn't I?
Ok, so... I liked the Nexus for the price and performance. I feel the market is saturated in devices which are GROSSLY over priced. $1000 for a cellphone is insanity. I also like the freedom of choice in ROMs, the customizations I can make, and a phone that is a "spec beast" that cuts out the useless fluff. In short, I like choice and performance. The XDA user-base should know what I'm talking about. I don't want to have to buy in to another ecosystem, which you're practically forced to do when you get a Samsung device. The Samsung experience is actually worse than just that, now that I think about it. Samsung's ecosystem is trapped inside the Android ecosystem, so even if you eventually move to another Android phone, you might as well be going through the pains of moving to an iPhone depending on how much of the Sammy Koolaid you drank. That's neither here nor there, so I digress...
With Google killing off the Nexus line, what other options are out there? The Pixel line went full-retail-retard and started competing against the HTC/LG/Sammies of the world, especially in price. No thanks. Should I then go down the Chi-phone rabbit hole with Honor and Xiaomi and the like? I'd rather not. So, in my view, the OP5 is pretty much the next Nexus, for all intents and dolphins. No one seems to think of this phone that way. I guess that's why all the camera / screen resolution hate seems utterly asinine to me. I guess I'm used to having issues at launch as a Nexus user.
But seriously, If you can't stand that the OP5 uses a 1080P display, or wanted a super refined camera experience like the Pixel or GS8+, why didn't you buy a Pixel or GS8+? Did you think OP has the resources that Google and Sammy have? Did you think an S8 quality phone was just going to magically spring forth from OP's arse for $500? Where exactly did your expectations come from?
From my point of view, people who are in an uproar about those things seem to have WILDLY off expectations, and are missing out on what makes this device great. Further, as a fan of tweaking things, I can't wait to see what patches or custom ROMs can do to make those "issues" null and void. So, to the Outraged I say this: go ahead and return your OP5, because it really isn't the phone for you - but not for the reasons you think.
Elnrik said:
Nice video. GJ Erica.
One thing Erica said is that "this is particularly a nerd's phone." It got me thinking about why I ordered the OP5. I'm a nerd. I could have gotten the S8+ or Pixel XL, so why didn't I?
Ok, so... I liked the Nexus for the price and performance. I feel the market is saturated in devices which are GROSSLY over priced. $1000 for a cellphone is insanity. I also like the freedom of choice in ROMs, the customizations I can make, and a phone that is a "spec beast" that cuts out the useless fluff. In short, I like choice and performance. The XDA user-base should know what I'm talking about. I don't want to have to buy in to another ecosystem, which you're practically forced to do when you get a Samsung device. The Samsung experience is actually worse than just that, now that I think about it. Samsung's ecosystem is trapped inside the Android ecosystem, so even if you eventually move to another Android phone, you might as well be going through the pains of moving to an iPhone depending on how much of the Sammy Koolaid you drank. That's neither here nor there, so I digress...
With Google killing off the Nexus line, what other options are out there? The Pixel line went full-retail-retard and started competing against the HTC/LG/Sammies of the world, especially in price. No thanks. Should I then go down the Chi-phone rabbit hole with Honor and Xiaomi and the like? I'd rather not. So, in my view, the OP5 is pretty much the next Nexus, for all intents and dolphins. No one seems to think of this phone that way. I guess that's why all the camera / screen resolution hate seems utterly asinine to me. I guess I'm used to having issues at launch as a Nexus user.
But seriously, If you can't stand that the OP5 uses a 1080P display, or wanted a super refined camera experience like the Pixel or GS8+, why didn't you buy a Pixel or GS8+? Did you think OP has the resources that Google and Sammy have? Did you think an S8 quality phone was just going to magically spring forth from OP's arse for $500? Where exactly did your expectations come from?
From my point of view, people who are in an uproar about those things seem to have WILDLY off expectations, and are missing out on what makes this device great. Further, as a fan of tweaking things, I can't wait to see what patches or custom ROMs can do to make those "issues" null and void. So, to the Outraged I say this: go ahead and return your OP5, because it really isn't the phone for you - but not for the reasons you think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent, totally agree and the best news to me is that the next Pixels apparently use the same chipset (as do most of the flagship devices coming out at the moment) which means the code for our plaything should be extremely streamlined and optimised once developers get their teeth into it cos they'll have the same (if not similar) drivers/resources as Google's toys.
Except, where those devices only have 4GB of memory to play with, ours has double that in the case of the midnight black. That's why I think the OP5 has the promise to be a devastating device.
Elnrik said:
Nice video. GJ Erica.
One thing Erica said is that "this is particularly a nerd's phone." It got me thinking about why I ordered the OP5. I'm a nerd. I could have gotten the S8+ or Pixel XL, so why didn't I?
Ok, so... I liked the Nexus for the price and performance. I feel the market is saturated in devices which are GROSSLY over priced. $1000 for a cellphone is insanity. I also like the freedom of choice in ROMs, the customizations I can make, and a phone that is a "spec beast" that cuts out the useless fluff. In short, I like choice and performance. The XDA user-base should know what I'm talking about. I don't want to have to buy in to another ecosystem, which you're practically forced to do when you get a Samsung device. The Samsung experience is actually worse than just that, now that I think about it. Samsung's ecosystem is trapped inside the Android ecosystem, so even if you eventually move to another Android phone, you might as well be going through the pains of moving to an iPhone depending on how much of the Sammy Koolaid you drank. That's neither here nor there, so I digress...
With Google killing off the Nexus line, what other options are out there? The Pixel line went full-retail-retard and started competing against the HTC/LG/Sammies of the world, especially in price. No thanks. Should I then go down the Chi-phone rabbit hole with Honor and Xiaomi and the like? I'd rather not. So, in my view, the OP5 is pretty much the next Nexus, for all intents and dolphins. No one seems to think of this phone that way. I guess that's why all the camera / screen resolution hate seems utterly asinine to me. I guess I'm used to having issues at launch as a Nexus user.
But seriously, If you can't stand that the OP5 uses a 1080P display, or wanted a super refined camera experience like the Pixel or GS8+, why didn't you buy a Pixel or GS8+? Did you think OP has the resources that Google and Sammy have? Did you think an S8 quality phone was just going to magically spring forth from OP's arse for $500? Where exactly did your expectations come from?
From my point of view, people who are in an uproar about those things seem to have WILDLY off expectations, and are missing out on what makes this device great. Further, as a fan of tweaking things, I can't wait to see what patches or custom ROMs can do to make those "issues" null and void. So, to the Outraged I say this: go ahead and return your OP5, because it really isn't the phone for you - but not for the reasons you think.
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Well said, people should know what they are buying - a cheaper phone that can still compete with flagships. Furthermore, you should know of the specific pros and cons the phone has before buying it. Sure, OnePlus has creeped their price up slightly, but it's not like all flagship prices haven't creeped up over the years.
Elnrik said:
But seriously, If you can't stand that the OP5 uses a 1080P display, or wanted a super refined camera experience like the Pixel or GS8+, why didn't you buy a Pixel or GS8+? Did you think OP has the resources that Google and Sammy have? Did you think an S8 quality phone was just going to magically spring forth from OP's arse for $500? Where exactly did your expectations come from?
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I didn't buy a Pixel because it is still using S821, i don't like the design, and because it is ridiculously expensive. I did not buy an S8 because i didn't want their bloatware, and because i don't need more than 1080p on a <6" display until mobile VR really takes off. I did not buy the LG G6 because its using S821.
However, here in EU the OP5 128gb version is only slightly less expensive than the 64gb S8, and is more expensive than the LG G6. Therefore i think it is fair to compare against these devices. Especially on the camera when OP decided to push that aspect so hard in their marketing (i mean its on the damn *box*).
Elnrik said:
Nice video. GJ Erica.
But seriously, If you can't stand that the OP5 uses a 1080P display, or wanted a super refined camera experience like the Pixel or GS8+, why didn't you buy a Pixel or GS8+? Did you think OP has the resources that Google and Sammy have? Did you think an S8 quality phone was just going to magically spring forth from OP's arse for $500? Where exactly did your expectations come from?
From my point of view, people who are in an uproar about those things seem to have WILDLY off expectations, and are missing out on what makes this device great. Further, as a fan of tweaking things, I can't wait to see what patches or custom ROMs can do to make those "issues" null and void. So, to the Outraged I say this: go ahead and return your OP5, because it really isn't the phone for you - but not for the reasons you think.
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THANK YOU!!! Wondering if I am the only sane person left on this planet!!!!!!!
Sent from my OnePlus 5 using XDA Labs
Yeah I agree - it's the EXACT reason I bought this phone. Because I'm a nerd. I built a beast gaming rig last summer and I want my phone to match in specs and power. I like a nice camera but I want speed, and I want options down the road when I try to hold onto the phone for 3-4 years, which is unheard of these days, but I think with all the dev support this phone will get I think it's possible
(My 128GB OP5 arrives 7/31 btw)