Spec me an Android

leaskovski

leaskovski

leaskovski

Soldato
Joined
22 Oct 2004
Posts
9,086
Location
Berkland
Hi Guys,

My contract is now up, and I think it might be time for me to actually get a proper Android phone instead of the HD2 that is running NAND at the moment.

Now, I love everything about my HD2, its size, its speed... the only thing I hate is the battery life, but this is expected being that it isnt native. Currently, I get 1 days use with Exchange & GMail push enabled.

My current ROM is not running HTC Sense, so I will want to be able to have a good dev\cooking community!!!

Now, I love the idea from HTC to be able to boot unlock over the website for free, so I might be swayed to go for another HTC, but Im open to suggestions.

Whats the best device out there at the moment for my asking?
 
leaskovski said:
Now, I love the idea from HTC to be able to boot unlock over the website for free, so I might be swayed to go for another HTC, but Im open to suggestions.
Click to expand...

Bit of an odd one that, basically with top end android phones you're looking at either the Samsung Galaxy S2 or the HTC Sensation, you mention the Sensation yet it's not unlockable yet and the SGS2 (and in fact 'most' other phones) already have an unlocked bootloader, so being able to unlock the bootloader over the website for free is hardly a selling point :p

On that note, those are the two best phones, the SGS2 has been out for longer, had an unlocked bootloader for all that time and hence has the bigger custom rom market, but as you mentioned it it doesn't have (and probably will never have really) HTC Sense, for fairly obvious reasons. Saying that It's a great phone, technically the superior of the two and I love mine.

And the HTC Sensation, it's only recently been unlocked by the modding community, I believe the official unlocking will happen 'next month', but because of that the modding community isn't huge, yet...

Personally it's the SGS2 easily, pretty much the only selling point for the Sensation, imo, is HTC Sense as a stock UI.
 
I've gone from an HD2 (running Android since Feb) to a Galaxy S2 and I can honestly say I love it! The guy next to me at work (Tim) went from a Desire to a Sensation a few weeks ago and he's a happy bunny too, so I don't think you can go wrong with either to be honest.

A lot of it is down to personal preference - I like the fact the SGS2 is so light and thin and I like the feel that the phone is just a screen and not much else. I like the feel of the Sensation, but in my hand it feels too similar to the HD2 and doesn't feel like enough of an upgrade to justify the cost. I think the screen of the SGS2 is breath taking, even compared to the HD2. The screen of the Sensation has 35% more pixels than the SGS2, but next to each other it's hard to tell but to me the Sensation screen looks a little washed out in comparison. The SGS2 does have the better camera judging from the test shots we did in the same room.

Tim thinks the SGS2 feels too light and like a toy. He prefers the solid, premium feel of the Sensation to the "cheap feeling" SGS2. He also thinks the SGS2 screen is a little too vibrant and bright, and prefers the Sensation screen's more muted approach. The extra pixels does mean the phone has to work harder than the SGS2 but neither phone exactly struggles outside of benchmarks.

My advice would be to head to a phone shop and see if you can have a fondle with both phones. I'm pretty sure this should show you which phone is right for you fairly quickly and, like I said, you can't really go wrong with either.

EDIT: Just to say my SGS2 cost me £119 up front, on a 12 month contract at £30pm. I made the up front cost by selling my HD2. For me, the deal was a complete no-brainer! :)
 
Last edited:
The Samsung Galaxy S II is the phone you want, it really is that simple.

As for the above poster, I can make a pretty compelling argument as to why you've gone very 'wrong' if you went for a Sensation without considering what things you use your phone for.
 
Last edited:
Some people have issues, but the majority it seems manage an idle usage (eg gmail sync on, gps on (but not used), wifi on, but screen off and it sat on the side) of around 0.8% per hour, eg nothing to really worry about,

For my usage (basically the above, 2 gmail accounts synching, no specific optimisation for battery life) I use around the 0.8% per hour mark at idle, the odd text/phone call doesn't really eat into that, playing games in the evening does but even then I take it off charge at 5:30, mostly idle until around 5 when I get home, from then until then I generally play games/do stuff, depending how much means I end up with between 60 and 80% left at around 11 when I go to bed, I charge it every night but I'm confident I could get 2-3 days or so of my usual usage out of it... (for note last night was 86%, but I really didn't use it all day :p)

It is possible to drain the battery completely in around 6-8 hours though if you're using it constantly :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom