-
After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.
Compare, contrast, opinions: GSIII vs EVO 4G LTE / Sprint-CDMA-S4 only
- Thread starter spridell
- Start date
I definitely prefer the evo camera. The evo camera was to die for lol but the other issues pushed me away from the beautiful camera. If the GS3 had the evo camera, it would be perfect almost
HTC really hosed the multitasking memory parameters, and then came out publicly and said that they meant to do it.
Evidently many don't use it in a way where the problem appears, I surely do. It's easily addressed with a root mod (night and day difference) so that's something for folks to consider - not everyone likes to root, while others wouldn't leave home without it.
Just repeating an earlier sentiment.
HTC really hosed the multitasking memory parameters, and then came out publicly and said that they meant to do it.
Evidently many don't use it in a way where the problem appears, I surely do. It's easily addressed with a root mod (night and day difference) so that's something for folks to consider - not everyone likes to root, while others wouldn't leave home without it.
Just repeating an earlier sentiment.
I am totally not against rooting if it fixes the issue. Can you explain to me what about rooting it fixes it (what rom, what do I need to do lol) I am a root rookie, but gotta start somewhere. i prefer my gs3 right now just due to the multitasking issue, but I want mt EVO back!
Depends which versions of the SIII are being considered, if it's the US versions I'd be more willing to consider competition as the hardware is just so similar.
But thankfully I'm not from the US so don't have to worry about such things, the international version with Exynos 4412 is the fastest currently available and I still very much favour Samsungs OLED displays.
Also I'm loving the battery life on my SIII, going 36 hours+ consistently is kinda nice.
But thankfully I'm not from the US so don't have to worry about such things, the international version with Exynos 4412 is the fastest currently available and I still very much favour Samsungs OLED displays.
Also I'm loving the battery life on my SIII, going 36 hours+ consistently is kinda nice.
I'll do my best.
As you may know, Android has all this fancy management going on to manage tasks and apps, shuffling them here and there in memory, putting them to sleep, caching them, and then killing them off when they're no longer essential at the moment.
All of those actions are controlled by a list of memory values - when there's this much left, do that, when only this much, kill that, now only this much, put that to sleep.
They're called the "minimum free" (minfree) and "out of memory adjustments" (OOM adj) and "virtual memory" (VM) values.
Adjusting them is like spinning the sides on a Rubic's cube - you have to be careful what you're up to.
Most all of the performance roms claiming better battery or faster speed tend to tweak those values.
HTC has made three apparent mistakes -
- The have set insanely high adjustment values. You can have lots of free ram while the system is busy lagging you and killing things off like crazy - including the launcher! lol
- They claim it's ok because Sense 4 is so much lighter. Ummm - have you seen the eye candy in that cool Recent Apps they have or in their new widget management system? Nice - but not light.
- The virtual memory values didn't change names but they did change in meaning for ICS. It's not clear to several of us that they got that right.
Good news - there is a generic rooting tool that will look at your system and auto-tune those values properly and it's sensitive to ICS.
http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-lte-all-things-root/561920-v6-supercharger-evo-lte.html
More good news - many of the custom LTEvo roms are using that tool as the basis for their adjustments, so you can pretty easily choose high performance roms with the solution baked in.
Even more good news - that tool doesn't care about brands or models, it's high-octane Android goodness, so anyone with any sorts of SGS3 performance problems and happy to root can check it out as well. It's pretty good stuff.
(I'm not knocking the SGS3, but I've seen the occasional lag or memory issue mentioned on the SGS3 forum, certainly not at the LTEvo level - but nothing is perfect, so I'm just saying - this is worth checking out.)
Depends which versions of the SIII are being considered, if it's the US versions I'd be more willing to consider competition as the hardware is just so similar.
But thankfully I'm not from the US so don't have to worry about such things, the international version with Exynos 4412 is the fastest currently available and I still very much favour Samsungs OLED displays.
Also I'm loving the battery life on my SIII, going 36 hours+ consistently is kinda nice.
Good point, I need to re-title this thread.
These are CDMA versions, so it's not even an option to order the international version and try to use it on this carrier (some have done that for our other GSM carriers, but simply can't here). That means, S4 only right now, no Exynos.
Yeap, from what we've been able to glean, the S4 processor in the LTEvo and US SGS3 models tends to eat into ram a bit harder to support HD GPU operations.
So, even with the extra ram in the US SGS3, I'm still an advocate of making sure that memory is properly tuned.
FWIW, I get just about a predictable _average_ of 10% battery drop for every hour of screen-on time. That can vary for others based on cell reception issues (and I'm not using 4G yet).
Sounds like the international S3 version is fabulous on battery!
I'll do my best.
As you may know, Android has all this fancy management going on to manage tasks and apps, shuffling them here and there in memory, putting them to sleep, caching them, and then killing them off when they're no longer essential at the moment.
All of those actions are controlled by a list of memory values - when there's this much left, do that, when only this much, kill that, now only this much, put that to sleep.
They're called the "minimum free" (minfree) and "out of memory adjustments" (OOM adj) and "virtual memory" (VM) values.
Adjusting them is like spinning the sides on a Rubic's cube - you have to be careful what you're up to.
Most all of the performance roms claiming better battery or faster speed tend to tweak those values.
HTC has made three apparent mistakes -
- The have set insanely high adjustment values. You can have lots of free ram while the system is busy lagging you and killing things off like crazy - including the launcher! lol
- They claim it's ok because Sense 4 is so much lighter. Ummm - have you seen the eye candy in that cool Recent Apps they have or in their new widget management system? Nice - but not light.
- The virtual memory values didn't change names but they did change in meaning for ICS. It's not clear to several of us that they got that right.
Good news - there is a generic rooting tool that will look at your system and auto-tune those values properly and it's sensitive to ICS.
http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-lte-all-things-root/561920-v6-supercharger-evo-lte.html
More good news - many of the custom LTEvo roms are using that tool as the basis for their adjustments, so you can pretty easily choose high performance roms with the solution baked in.
Even more good news - that tool doesn't care about brands or models, it's high-octane Android goodness, so anyone with any sorts of SGS3 performance problems and happy to root can check it out as well. It's pretty good stuff.
(I'm not knocking the SGS3, but I've seen the occasional lag or memory issue mentioned on the SGS3 forum, certainly not at the LTEvo level - but nothing is perfect, so I'm just saying - this is worth checking out.)
Thanks a lot. So after rooting, i should be able to multitask like I do on SG3??? I actually have no lag on the SG3 right now, but I did within a day of buying my evo 4g lte, my phone life womps lol
Multitasking varies for each user and the SGS3 is a great phone.
Without having both side by side, I don't want to make wild promises.
Only to say that the power users among us aren't complaining about LTEvo multitasking any more.
After the first day, I was ready to toss the LTEvo and either keep my 3D or get the SGS3. After tweaking it, I am more than satisfied.
Sorry to not be dramatic, but that's the truth as I know it.
drexappeal
Extreme Android User
If the 64gb SGS 3 does end up coming out and available on Sprint, that might put the SGS 3 in the lead for me. After reading about everyone's complaints about LTEvo's multi-tasking, I started to think about my current Android habits from my MoPho and even going back to my original EVO.
One thing I did notice that was weird when i was playing with the LTEvo...why can't I long press on the homescreen and set a wallpaper anymore? Sorry if that's already been addressed, but that was really strange to me. That's something I've always done with both Android phones I've owned, so this threw me off big time (not that it'll matter, once I have Go Launcher Ex loaded up).
One thing I did notice that was weird when i was playing with the LTEvo...why can't I long press on the homescreen and set a wallpaper anymore? Sorry if that's already been addressed, but that was really strange to me. That's something I've always done with both Android phones I've owned, so this threw me off big time (not that it'll matter, once I have Go Launcher Ex loaded up).
Fair's fair, not everyone complains about LTEvo multitasking, not everyone complains about SGS3 wifi performance. I think that much of that comes from both lines being new and the makers needing user feedback to improve the experiences.
Always a good idea to follow your gut on issues that matter to you though.
BTW, once you're on ICS, try Nova launcher. It's pretty good.
Always a good idea to follow your gut on issues that matter to you though.
BTW, once you're on ICS, try Nova launcher. It's pretty good.
drexappeal
Extreme Android User
Thanks, EM. Between Nova Launcher and Apex Launcher, which one is better? Have you tried both? Only reason I'd stick with GLEx is because I have it completely backed up and it'd be an easy transition. And what nuances on Nova and/or Apex would be more ideal, since they're native ICS launchers?
I tried both Apex and Nova, and the first thing I experienced I can't articulate - Nova somehow felt better, more like an upgrade than a replacement. The rich feature set really locked me in (snaps on the LTEvo screen sharing thread, can't give a link just at the moment).
It's got a wide configuration range and you can save / restore setups.
Edit - this shows a tiny bit of it -
http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g-lte/555013-htc-evo-4g-lte-screen-scene-2.html#post4678099
The page transitions in the app drawer are very nice, smooth.
I really love the scrolling dock.
Somewhat outdated benchmarks and also the wrong version of the phone by the looks of it, I'm not even sure what version they are testing as allot of the results are not correct. Linpack scores should more 160-180 for multi-threading, 56 for single threading and quadrant is around 5500 for the Exynos version.
Here is Anandtechs breakdown of both versions, it a shame they never included the international version results in the US version review, it's funny because even the Galaxy S2 beats the S4 versions when it comes to gaming performance.
AnandTech - Samsung Galaxy S III Review - AT&T and T-Mobile USA Variants - US version with S4
AnandTech - Samsung Galaxy S III Performance Preview: It's Fast - International version with Exynos.
This thread started with speculation during pre-release and we had little to go by. So, you're not really telling anyone any news that some of the earlier posts are using the international model.
As I have been in the SGS3 forum Quadrant thread, we'll note that the SGS3 ranges from 4700 to about 5400 on the S4 model, same as the LTEvo, and the Exynos is something like double that. and you can read my post there to explain again that Quadrant is meaningless - something that I have mentioned several times as you well know. I doubt that you would argue that your phone is 4 times as fast as smooth as a Galaxy Nexus when used side by side for everyday tasks, yet that is what an over-reliance on synthetic benchmarks misleads some people to believe.
We won't even need to get into how the LTEvo leaves the SGS2 behind in Nenamark 2, one of your favorite benchmarks from last year as memory serves, because no one here is asking about the SGS2.
When you get the chance to use the US versions of these two phones, then you'll be in a much better position to tell us which is better at what.
And we really care about the Sprint versions of the phones here.
Cheers, thanks.
As I have been in the SGS3 forum Quadrant thread, we'll note that the SGS3 ranges from 4700 to about 5400 on the S4 model, same as the LTEvo, and the Exynos is something like double that. and you can read my post there to explain again that Quadrant is meaningless - something that I have mentioned several times as you well know. I doubt that you would argue that your phone is 4 times as fast as smooth as a Galaxy Nexus when used side by side for everyday tasks, yet that is what an over-reliance on synthetic benchmarks misleads some people to believe.
We won't even need to get into how the LTEvo leaves the SGS2 behind in Nenamark 2, one of your favorite benchmarks from last year as memory serves, because no one here is asking about the SGS2.
When you get the chance to use the US versions of these two phones, then you'll be in a much better position to tell us which is better at what.
And we really care about the Sprint versions of the phones here.
Cheers, thanks.
drexappeal
Extreme Android User
Just by looking, it looks like it has everything go launcher ex has. I'll probably download and try it out to see if it enhances anything better than go launcher ex. Scrolling dock has always been important for me, which is why I went from launcher pro plus, to glex, and now considering either apex or nova. Seems to me like the glex team has already adjusted the ui for ics already.
We'll see. I'm still far from making my decision. Definitely waiting on the LG Eclipse before deciding.
AustinRawr
Lurker
I Ordered a Galaxy S3 for Sprint, but received a Evo 4 LTE. After having the HTC for a week and finally getting the S3, I am very disappointed with the S3. The UI is absolutely horrible, and the shutter sound is IMPOSSIBLE to turn off with the Sprint version.
If the Evo had 2 Gigs of Ram like the S3, i would readily keep it in place of the S3.
I have until 8/16 to decide which to keep.
The only thing keeping me from returning the S3 right now is that i feel like it is more future proof than the Evo.
But in all honesty if the Evo were to be able to get Jelly Bean this year, and maintain the smooth UI it now has WITHOUT rooting, That would be enough.
Any advice?
If the Evo had 2 Gigs of Ram like the S3, i would readily keep it in place of the S3.
I have until 8/16 to decide which to keep.
The only thing keeping me from returning the S3 right now is that i feel like it is more future proof than the Evo.
But in all honesty if the Evo were to be able to get Jelly Bean this year, and maintain the smooth UI it now has WITHOUT rooting, That would be enough.
Any advice?
Tough call.
Hard to believe that either model will be locked out of Jellybean. No guess when for either one.
I strongly favor the performance improvements from rooting my Evo but I appreciate that it's not for everyone.
What's your gut instinct telling you? Anything either way?
Hard to believe that either model will be locked out of Jellybean. No guess when for either one.
I strongly favor the performance improvements from rooting my Evo but I appreciate that it's not for everyone.
What's your gut instinct telling you? Anything either way?
I agonized for 2 weeks over both of these phones and owned them both for a week before I decided on the EVO LTE and I'm extremely happy with the decission. Here's my reasons. 1) S Voice on the Samsung is terrible at recognizing anything other than common first names and common words. Anytime I would say "call Suzie Stone" for example, it would never get a hit in my Contacts, but would list all the Susan's. (Voice Dialer on the HTC got a hit on the same name everytime). So hating Svoice, I really missed the "Voice Dialer" app, which Samsung should have included as a secondary option for voice dialing, but there's no way to download or install it. Voice Dialer is way better, faster and acurate for hands free calling, which I use all the time on the EVO with a BT headset (repeat... all the time), at home, in the car, walking, etc. It doesn't ask for confirmation before dialing, but when it seldom gets it wrong, I just hang up before it dials, because it always says what it's about to do. S Voice on the SIII is actually Vlingo. Why the recognition is so bad, is amazing since Vlingo has been out a long time. I used "Choice Dialer" on the EVO 3D and it was way better than Vlingo or any others I tried. 2) I took all kinds of photos on both phones, and while the S3 beats the Evo in close up flesh and face tones in certain shots depending on the lighting, without a doubt for me, most of the photos on the EVO were better. The S3's indoor flash photos are usually blue-ish (even on my PC monitor). The Evo takes beautiful indoor photos, and the f/2.0 stop on the Evo beats the f/2.6 on the S3 and it shows in indoor low-light shots. I also like the vivid nature colors outdoors on the Evo. Comparing images from both on a desktop monitor, is often a close call, but I prefer the Evo. It's more than just saturation, the S3 photo colors sometimes look dull and washed IMO, whereas the Evo looks vivid and more appealing on both the phone and a PC monitor. Just my opinion. I've taken a lot of photos now with the EVO and I'm always pleased. I rarely use my other Lumix dig cam now unless it's for printing perhaps. 3) I keep wi-fi on all the time, and I'm amazed how much battery is still left on the Evo, compared to the S3 at the end of the day. I do not keep wi-fi set to Best mode. Maybe it was the Eye watching feature of the S3, which I enabled, that made the difference. If so, I would not use that feature if I had the S3. Htc has already released a patch. I'm hoping the next one will solve the red faces on closeups in certain lighting. Again, it's not all the time, it depends what other lighting there is and the background behind your face. And you can manually turn down the saturation before taking the shot if needed. 4) Both phones are amazing, but I much prefer the Evo LTE. The screen with true whites is sweet. It usually emits a "wow" when you show photos to people on it. 5) Also, I really didn't like the hardware home button on the S3. When you're used to tapping, and then having to push harder on another button was annoying to me. 6) I also like the micro-usb port on the side of the Evo, which makes it easy to plop in the Htc car dock accessory. 7) And the camera hardware button makes it easier for 1-handed photos when needed. One handed photos with the S3 is virtually impossible without dropping it. 8) Also, I like HTC Sync with my Outlook, media, etc. It just works with no fuss. Plug it in, it syncs everything, unplug it. No messing with wireless apps for different syncs. Kies on the S3 was frustrating for me. BTW, I tried a few different cases with the EVO LTE, and the "BLACK COVER RUBBER GEL TPU CASE" that you can find on Ebay from China sellers for $3 or so, is the best IMO. It leaves the side buttons uncovered, which I like, and the shiny TPU looks great. I tried soft gel cases and the hard 2-piece ones. This TPU case also fits in the vehicle dock. It has a thin enough shell to allow the USB to connect firmly. Most other cases are not thin enough. Here's a link if anyone's interested.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/140804172011