OT:Smart Phones

[dbdynsty25]

Been home for a few days now and the battery still sucks on the One. Two more days and then it's being returned if I can't figure out a way to make it through an entire day without needing to plug it in. It's the biggest downside BY FAR. The GS4 is looking better and better every day even though I'll miss the camera on the One indoors for sure.

Damn you!

Last couple of days I've started to notice the battery drain too.

I left my charger at home last couple days and with normal use I'm hitting 20% BEFORE 5-6PM.

Really annoying.

I went and returned the One and kept the S4, but I'm having second thoughts. Even though the battery drain is real...and it's not nearly as good as the GS4 (I had almost 5 hours of screen on time last night, which is ridiculously good), I really miss the One camera. And with a new kid (well 11 months new), I take a LOT of indoor pics and the S4 just isn't in the same league in that regard. So I'm almost tempted to go BACK to the One and just learn to deal with the battery life. It really sucks that neither of the phones are PERFECT.

The S4 also seems to suffer from a bit of lag just throughout the OS...even with all of the tweaks I've found on the XDA forums, it's still not even close to as smooth as the One, which is another huge deal to me. The One is clocked at 1.7ghz quad core and the S4 is 1.9...so why on earth does it feel slower? I believe the term is feature creep...WAY too many useless features on the S4 as far as I'm concerned.

If the One had slightly better battery life, a side power button and a proper notification light, this wouldn't even be a discussion, One all the way.

[jLp vAkEr0]

I went and returned the One and kept the S4, but I'm having second thoughts. Even though the battery drain is real...and it's not nearly as good as the GS4 (I had almost 5 hours of screen on time last night, which is ridiculously good), I really miss the One camera. And with a new kid (well 11 months new), I take a LOT of indoor pics and the S4 just isn't in the same league in that regard. So I'm almost tempted to go BACK to the One and just learn to deal with the battery life. It really sucks that neither of the phones are PERFECT.

The S4 also seems to suffer from a bit of lag just throughout the OS...even with all of the tweaks I've found on the XDA forums, it's still not even close to as smooth as the One, which is another huge deal to me. The One is clocked at 1.7ghz quad core and the S4 is 1.9...so why on earth does it feel slower? I believe the term is feature creep...WAY too many useless features on the S4 as far as I'm concerned.

If the One had slightly better battery life, a side power button and a proper notification light, this wouldn't even be a discussion, One all the way.

Oh no, even with the battery issue, it's the HTC One for me all the way.

I wouldn't really consider changing it for the S4.

I may just take it back to Costco and get a new one to see if it's maybe bad luck? (And maybe get the black one if available )

[Inuyasha]

Can you guys recommend a good cell phone for kids? My son will be out of town at my mothers for a month and I want to have some kind of communication with him. The primary use would be more for an emergency situation if I need to call him. Probably something like 10 minutes a week if that.

Do they have some phone like that cheap and you don't have a sign a contract? iPhone is probably out of the question. I just want a simple phone to give him where I can program phone #'s so it's easy for him to dial us and receive calls.

[jLp vAkEr0]

I'm sure you can get cheap pre-paid phones from places like Walmart.

Cheaper ones won't be smart phones or at least not modern ones, but it seems you don't need them to be.

[dbdynsty25]

Yes, go to walmart. You can get cheap dumbphones w/ either monthly, or minute based plans. Definitely the way to go.

[dbdynsty25]

I may just take it back to Costco and get a new one to see if it's maybe bad luck? (And maybe get the black one if available )

I swapped it out. LOL...I now have the silver One. I actually like it a bit better than the black, simply because it doesn't show fingerprints or scratches as much. Both are badass tho. I had the black version for the previous two weeks, and you can't really go wrong with either.

[Rodster]

Any of you guys tried Straight Talk? My buddy who lives in Wash State switched his family from Verizon to ST and he really likes it. I've been looking at ST cause I hate contracts.

[jLp vAkEr0]

I may just take it back to Costco and get a new one to see if it's maybe bad luck? (And maybe get the black one if available )

I swapped it out. LOL...I now have the silver One. I actually like it a bit better than the black, simply because it doesn't show fingerprints or scratches as much. Both are badass tho. I had the black version for the previous two weeks, and you can't really go wrong with either.

Let me know if you get better battery with this one.

[dbdynsty25]

So far so good Javy...it does seem to be a bit better, but it could just be placebo.

As for At&t as a whole...so far I'm pretty impressed with the Live Chat customer service. In store and on the phone, absolutely terrible.

Today At&t started a promotion...99 bucks for the HTC One and you get a free Beats Pill speaker.

https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/packa ... j5yiA-PHKR

Hell of a deal as I paid $200 for the phone and the speaker is another $200 (ripoff of course). So I get online w/ the Live Chat people and voila...100 dollar credit to my account and a free Beats Pill speaker being sent to my house. I'm literally in shock that they did it. This after I already received almost $200 in credits for the hassle it's been to get mine and my wife's lines on the same account and on a Mobile Share plan (to save money). So yeah...completely impressed w/ the Live Chat people, but the in-store reps are the reason it's been such a hassle to get this all done. Either way, I can't complain about the discounts and credits I've been given. They definitely bent over backwards.

And if you're up for a phone upgrade on At&t...you really cannot beat that deal I linked above. It's sold out online so you'd have to go in store to try to get it. Not sure if its available there. Worth a shot of course.

[jLp vAkEr0]

Damn, I paid $129 at Costco (via wife's upgrade), but $99 plus some bluetooth speakers is a steal.

[Gangrel]

Db, are you still liking the One?

I think soon I'm biting the bullet and upgrading early from my Nexus S, and being a tecnhowhore want either the One or S4 to have the "best".

The One is cheaper on a contract, and I think I would like the low light camera abilities..... and have read an update is coming to fix the menu key bar thingy.......

I also like that I have heard lots of S4 folks complaining about lag.......

But the battery thing scares me, though I have read rumors the update improves that a bit too.....


One thing I do worry about is with the power button on top, wouldn't it get hit in your pocket and keep turning itself on?

At least with a button on the side that would be less likely.

[dbdynsty25]

I'm really torn actually. I like the phone better than the S4 at this point for a few reasons.

The camera is faster...with an 11 month old, you gotta be quick. So that's probably the biggest reason I am sticking with the One so far. The build quality is also top notch...just a beautiful device...especially if you rock it nekid without a case. Yes, the One is also smoother than the S4. No idea why there is lag closing out to home screens and going from screen to screen, but hopefully this is smoothed out over time. It really was annoying when I was using the S4. I also like the size better. It's a touch taller than the S4 but it's narrower so it's easier to hold and maneuver around the screen. The screen is also completely readable in sunlight...the S4 is almost completely black...so its damn near impossible outdoors unless you shade the screen. Last but not least, I used a Galaxy Nexus and GS3 for basically the last three years, so a change is good for me.

All that said...the battery is complete crap compared to the S4. It's not even close really. I got about 25% more battery life out of the S4 comparatively and that's being generous. If you are away from outlets all day, you better not use the phone at all...it won't make it. Just barely using the phone during the day at work to play a few scrabble turns and maybe a few texts, I'm down to around 50% at the end of the day. The S4 would leave me around 70%. That's just not good. I'm going to use it until the developer edition ROMs come out at the end of the month for sure to see if maybe stock android can lengthen the battery life. I have a feeling there is a lot of extra "Sense UI" sh*t going on in the background that's just running it down but for the life of me I cannot figure out what it is. So we'll see what happens at the end of the month with both phones and the new "stock roms", but I'm leaning towards keeping the One and just dealing with the battery because I like a few things better about it.

The top power button is sh*t too btw...just impossible to hit with one hand so you definitely have to use two. It is fairly flush with the device tho (which is another issue) so there's virtually no way it can activate itself in your pocket. I'd think the side button on the GS4 (which I prefer greatly) would be easier to accidentally activate.

Hope this helps.

[dbdynsty25]

Gangrel and anyone else interested in the HTC One:

http://www.androidcentral.com/amazon-la ... e-tomorrow

99 dollar HTC One upgrade for Sprint or At&t customers tomorrow. FYI. Will PM you too.

[Gangrel]

It's already $99 up here in Canada on Telus at least, which is another think pushing me that way. $100 cheaper than the S4 on a 3 year renewal.



Funny thing is, on another board I have guys claiming batter life is BETTER than the S4, though one guy is using a leaked 4.2.2 ROM. Sigh. I might sit tight and see if the new update is released soon and see how that affects the One. I'm already charging my old phone mulitple times a day, i'd like to get that back down to once.

[dbdynsty25]

Funny thing is, on another board I have guys claiming batter life is BETTER than the S4, though one guy is using a leaked 4.2.2 ROM. Sigh. I might sit tight and see if the new update is released soon and see how that affects the One. I'm already charging my old phone mulitple times a day, i'd like to get that back down to once.

Well I've had two different S4s (a white and a black) and the S4 easily handles the One in comparison. At least with the apps I use daily. The wife uses her phone more than I do and she always outlasts me. She never needs to charge where I am charging by 8pm each night usually to make it to midnight. Again, it's probably different for everyone based on their uses, so I'm sure you'll be fine w/ either. Nothing wrong with waiting until the end of the month...by then we'll know what the phones are capable of without all the extra software the mfg like to put on em. Sense is definitely better than touchwiz...I do know that.

smh...canadians.

[Gangrel]

Yea, but do I have the patience for the end of the month? Hmmmmmm.........

You almost sold me on the shutter speed, as our 5 week old can be rather hard to keep still for pictures too.... when she's not sleeping anyway.

I have heard more love for Sense than TW too though.

We'll see if i survive the weekend without picking one of them, lol. Two guys at work just got S4s and rave about them, so maybe i'll kidnap one and play around with it.

[dbdynsty25]

Yea, but do I have the patience for the end of the month? Hmmmmmm.........

You almost sold me on the shutter speed, as our 5 week old can be rather hard to keep still for pictures too.... when she's not sleeping anyway.

I have heard more love for Sense than TW too though.

We'll see if i survive the weekend without picking one of them, lol. Two guys at work just got S4s and rave about them, so maybe i'll kidnap one and play around with it.

The One is just smoother and faster overall from my day to day usage, battery issues aside. That reason alone is reason to go One. Samsung just tried to do too much I think...way too many features that you'll use once or twice and then forget about. I turned damn near everything off and the One is still a smoother phone. No idea why that is as they are spec'd almost identical save for the faster clock speeds on the S4...which makes it more bizarre. I'm the biggest Galaxy honk around and it takes quite a phone to replace it. The One did it. If only the battery life was better...it would be a no brainer.

[Gangrel]

Oddly enough, the Anandtech review's battery test has the One and S4 as almost neck and neck for battery.

I think I am leaning towards the One. I'm not sure why, I think reading through the Anandtech review (which is quite long and detailed, especially on the camera) has made me realize that the camera should be good enough, and one thing everyone agrees on is lowlight performance, which is where most cell phone shots are taken I find.

I probably would have ran out and gotten it today, but i forgot my wallet when I went to work, and now i'm babysitting all night. sigh, real life gets in the way of fun!

At least me and Zombie Baby are watching US Open golf......

[dbdynsty25]

The guy on Anandtech, Brian Klug or whatever his name is, is a huge fan of the One. Always posting stuff about it on twitter and whatnot. Enjoy picking it up tomorrow then. LOL. It's a fantastic phone overall.

I have a feeling that part of my issue is that I'm in and out of 4G LTE all day. So I'm not in a strong LTE area...once the towers are ALL upgraded in my area, I think it should improve. Not so much searching for LTE.

[Gangrel]

I think the other thing that has me sold is the brightness in sunlight. I know with my Nexus S it's a b*tch to see in the sun or in my car if i have it docked, and it sounds like it's the same on the S4.

I don't think i'll be getting it tomorrow as I'm golfing in a tournament for the kid's hospital, so will be liquored, lol. Maybe sunday...... i'm trying to practice patience. And failing!

[dbdynsty25]

Yup, the S4 is OLED, thus pitch black outdoors. You can at least read the One.

[jLp vAkEr0]

I have a feeling that part of my issue is that I'm in and out of 4G LTE all day. So I'm not in a strong LTE area...once the towers are ALL upgraded in my area, I think it should improve. Not so much searching for LTE.

This must be the issue.

Most battery test I've seen on reviews get way better results than what I'm getting.

And btw 3 of my co-workers have GS4 and experience the same battery drain issues.

I would just like to disable LTE completly for a couple of days and give it a try.

[Gangrel]

As predicted I didn't make it through the weekend. In order for the wife to get some work done, I took the little one out shopping on this rainy father's day. One of our stops was Best Buy, where to make a long story short, I got the HTC One for the cost of nothing, except for my Device Balance on the Nexus S. Though that will be on my Telus bill, so techinally it was free!

Either the guy screwed up, or the deal wasn't advertised, but ignoring my device balance on my old phone, I got the One for 0$, paid $12 for the mini SIM card, and earned a $50 gift card to boot by trading in my Nexus S.

I think I should have been paying $50 for the phone based on the posters I saw, but hey, i'm not going to doubt them. Besides, it's my first Father's day, so i figured it was a gift from the tech gods.

Haven't messed much with it, but it's pretty damn cool and slick so far. Tomorrow at work will be my first battery test!

Zoe's are kind of meh, though the editing it opens up seems pretty cool.

The highlights are pretty nifty though. I see myself making tons of those to share events about the baby with the family as neat little snippets.

Only time will tell, but I'm thinking i'll enjoy this more than the S4.

[dbdynsty25]

Keep in mind a little battery conditioning is in order. Give it four or five discharge cycles before making any judgements. Manufacturers claim you don't need to but I've had enough phones and experience to say otherwise. Haha. Congrats on the great deal!

[jLp vAkEr0]

I disabled LTE this morning to see if it makes any difference.

As of now its 11:15am and I'm down to 73%.

Took it out of the charger at 7:10am.

Been doing some Hangout chats, podcast listening and a bit of browsing during the morning.

Syncing my Gmail and my work email (pop3).

We'll see...