If Sprint released the Evo3D and SGS2 and Photon on the same day which would you pick?

[hakujin]

I agree... I think a lot of people miss the fact that, while sense does include a nifty looking launcher, it also includes a lot of integration across the system apps and value added features in many of the you-probably-take-them-for-granted system apps. Things like the t-9 dialing, or an email client that works reliably with exchange, etc..

Also, I know a lot of people bag on sense for bogging down the system but it's one of the smoothest UI's I've found so I'm not sure I understand the source of that comment. Maybe it chews up a lot of storage but I haven't seen a great impact on day to day performance.

You have a point w/ t9 dialing, I do miss it! But LP's favorites widget is a good stop gap along w/ GB favs. I only really talk to a much smaller subset regularly tho. I do know of a solution similar T9 Dialer but more holistic. Have you tried:

Gesture Search Home

 

[apinkel]

You have a point w/ t9 dialing, I do miss it! But LP's favorites widget is a good stop gap along w/ GB favs. I only really talk to a much smaller subset regularly tho. I do know of a solution similar T9 Dialer but more holistic. Have you tried:

Gesture Search Home

Actually I just use Dialer one which has t-9 dialing. I got hooked on t-9 dialing with WM and it seems so intuitive to me that I've never considered even looking for anything else.

 

[EarlyMon]

I don't use FB. I do use Gesture Search - it's the best. Tap the phone to call or the name to take me into the Contacts I like.

And the fast profile switching - I use that.

I know it's not as good as adding the other types of stuff - as I'd said before - but it does the job, comes with and I don't have to fix what isn't broken for me.

I don't personally use their messaging, email or twitter widgets (ok, that's not true - I use the tiny mail widget that shows number of unread messages) - I do access those functions quickly from contacts, as shown in the vid. (Except I use Handcent, not Sense sms - it doesn't care.) CallTrack I love, that and their Calendar and I'm well-covered. My wife's phone is 6 pages of big widgets, she's happy. I like the control widgets, the big clock and the Calendar.

It's not for everyone, but I fit their target market well enough - and I learned to use it from that vid, so I got prejudiced to those uses.

I'd like any well-setup phone equally, I suppose and I might like other setups better were I to put that time into it - for me, it's about Android. Unlike vanilla where I had to buy/try and mix and match, I take it out of the box, I'm comfy, it just works and I can customize all I want - not as much or as cool as what you see in the themes forums hereabout, but enough for me. And when this or that piece doesn't suit me, I just incrementally replace those pieces. Android-fashion.

 

[SporkLover]

The more I read, the more I suffer from analysis paralysis.

Edge is towards the Evo. Sense is a lot to give up (even when considering the great aftermarket launchers, which sense is more than...). The Evo 3d for certain supports SMR...... hmmmmmm

 

[RichboyJhae]

The more I read, the more I suffer from analysis paralysis.

Edge is towards the Evo. Sense is a lot to give up (even when considering the great aftermarket launchers, which sense is more than...). The Evo 3d for certain supports SMR...... hmmmmmm

What's SMR?

 

[hakujin]

Actually I just use Dialer one which has t-9 dialing. I got hooked on t-9 dialing with WM and it seems so intuitive to me that I've never considered even looking for anything else.

Oh, thought we were talking about Sense dialer (more so the comparison of different UI Overlays), which also completes this task.

I enjoyed T9 on WM too, but I now feel far removed from many habits that I once had under WM 5 on the SDA.

Those were the days tho! The ROM development wasn't nearly as rich and expedient but nevertheless running on T-Mobile w/ an iMate SP5 Rom on a carrier unlocked handset just seemed cool. My perception of how my phone should interface w/ thy PC and how apps should be obtained/installed was vastly different! I used Bluetooth a lot more (almost never now what with Dropbox replacing OBEX) and of course ActiveSync (wireless BT ActiveSync made me stoked [when it worked], haha!).

Before my phone was a direct extension of my PC and now I hold the belief that my phone should be an autonomous device; sort of a paradigm into a completely different perceptional schema! O.K., I'll shut up now... coo, coo (Shallow Hal)

We can all agree that the Android universe is exciting & fun.

which sense is more than...).

I don't think that's necessarily been established beyond a subjective level, . . On a 'technical level' then sure, there are more changes than Launcher. But that's not really the point, it's about end experience.

In fact, I know there are quite a few enthusiasts (like us) that prefer the pure Android (and various other Launchers) experience more and purposefully remove Sense UI from their HTC handsets (i.e. willfully refusing it) for various reasons.

I used to think I could not live w/o it. Now that I haven't used it in some time, I realize how little I miss it and prefer alternative. Funny how that works...

 

[toolwarrior]

Oh, thought we were talking about Sense dialer (more so the comparison of different UI Overlays), which also completes this task.

I enjoyed T9 on WM too, but I now feel far removed from many habits that I once had under WM 5 on the SDA.

Those were the days tho! The ROM development wasn't nearly as rich and expedient but nevertheless running on T-Mobile w/ an iMate SP5 Rom on a carrier unlocked handset just seemed cool. My perception of how my phone should interface w/ thy PC and how apps should be obtained/installed was vastly different! I used Bluetooth a lot more (almost never now what with Dropbox replacing OBEX) and of course ActiveSync (wireless BT ActiveSync made me stoked [when it worked], haha!).

Before my phone was a direct extension of my PC and now I hold the belief that my phone should be an autonomous device; sort of a paradigm into a completely different perceptional schema! O.K., I'll shut up now... coo, coo (Shallow Hal)

We can all agree that the Android universe is exciting & fun.



I don't think that's necessarily been established beyond a subjective level, . . On a 'technical level' then sure, there are more changes than Launcher. But that's not really the point, it's about end experience.

In fact, I know there are quite a few enthusiasts (like us) that prefer the pure Android (and various other Launchers) experience more and purposefully remove Sense UI from their HTC handsets (i.e. willfully refusing it) for various reasons.

I used to think I could not live w/o it. Now that I haven't used it in some time, I realize how little I miss it and prefer alternative. Funny how that works...

^^^^
.... few too many hits on the ole techno bong!

 

[hakujin]

^^^^
.... few too many hits on the ole techno bong!

Oh yeah!

On another note, I was going to give dialer one a whirl, but its painfully slow, it hangs, and is bloated on low memory devices.

There's a reason why so many clamor stock, stock, stock. This serves as but another reminder.

 

[jersey221]

i just tested my evo against the video where the guy is comparing the sensation and gs2 and my evo was either just as fast or quicker..im not sure what is going on in the video but the sensation shouldnt be that far behind.

talking about him comparing the browser.

 

[apinkel]

Oh yeah!

On another note, I was going to give dialer one a whirl, but its painfully slow, it hangs, and is bloated on low memory devices.

I used dialer one on my droid x and I'm using it on my low end optimus S (which is a great entry level android except for the low amount of storage). I haven't had any problems with it being laggy or hanging and it takes up less then 1.5MB. It's been flawless for me.

 

[EarlyMon]

i just tested my evo against the video where the guy is comparing the sensation and gs2 and my evo was either just as fast or quicker..im not sure what is going on in the video but the sensation shouldnt be that far behind.

talking about him comparing the browser.

Yep, my Evo was far faster than what he was showing. He did strive for a fair demo of the two, so I can't wait to see what's up with that either.

 

[apinkel]

What's SMR?

They touch on it here...
Sprint HTC EVO 3D and Motorola Photon 4G: specs comparison | Android Central

It means the phone supports the network upgrades being done by sprint under their "Network Vision" restructuring effort. That effort includes combining the towers for iden, 1x/3g and 4g into one tower, expanding the capacity of those towers and moving the legacy iDen network onto the 1x/3G spectrum which would hopefully free up the (very) lucrative 800mhz spectrum (possible for LTE... but nothing formal has been announced on this so you didn't hear this from me).

I saw the note about the E3D supporting SMR... but I'm not really sure what that means since there's a lot of stuff wrapped up in that effort. My best guess is that it means that the phone would support the new push-to-talk service that will replace the existing iden p2t network.

 

[EarlyMon]

If I followed correctly, I understood that the IDEN/PPT band is moving to CDMA - http://androidforums.com/sprint/349124-future-sprint-800-mhz-band-posts-moved-evo-3d-forum.html

Appreciate the tip on SMR, tho, totally drew a blank there!

 

[you2]

Not sure thre is a 1:1 with the video and wall clock. I.e, 5 sec of video might represent 10 sec of wall clock ... or something along those lines.

Yep, my Evo was far faster than what he was showing. He did strive for a fair demo of the two, so I can't wait to see what's up with that either.

 

[EarlyMon]

Not sure thre is a 1:1 with the video and wall clock. I.e, 5 sec of video might represent 10 sec of wall clock ... or something along those lines.

True dat, but one of his tech sites would not load nor display (would display on my Evo, not finish loading) - and his other load times, when side by side with the Sammy - dunno. I mentioned in another thread my Evo was loading those pages, same test conditions, slower than the SGS2, faster than the Sensation, and he had the two side-by-side. Hoping his Sensation was messed up somehow, other than by design.

 

[jroc]

I see I never really looked at the specs for the Photon...For me, the Photon might have the edge just for rated talk time. That and the GS2 would be the choices for me.

 

[hakujin]

I used dialer one on my droid x and I'm using it on my low end optimus S (which is a great entry level android except for the low amount of storage). I haven't had any problems with it being laggy or hanging and it takes up less then 1.5MB. It's been flawless for me.

many users claim a different experience. common theme is 'laggy' and 'slower than stock dialer'. this doesn't surprise me. even sense dialer was laggy compared to GB 2.3.4 dialer for me. same w/ 3rd party keyboards. same w/ sense UI as a whole, but then you feel otherwise. I'm not sure why you don't understand why sense sense is more resource heavy, particularly on low memory devices like the hero. the difference is night and day between a Sense UI ROM (cooked or otherwise) and a CM or AOSP build. Proof is in the pudding. if you doubt, check out the heroc threads on xda (or here) and you'll realize I'm not alone, and it's in fact night and day. glad it works out for you though. i'm just pleased none of the aforementioned bring anything to the table that I would dearly miss.

 

[you2]

Well - to be honest the test is kind of lame. Something as simple as packet loss could explain one phone being slower. There are a 100 other explanation. To do a test of this nature fairly you have to run it multiple times and each time ensure that the phone is starting from a 'reasonable' state (including clearing the browser cache); but even that is kind of a lame test because what I want to know is how the browser on the phone will repsond when I use it; and I frequently visit the same sites multiple times so then cache loading is also important. Anyways none of these reviews are touching the areas that I am most concern with (reception, battery life, audio in noisy areas). I know I've said this before but I want the device to be a good phone and not worry about sticking it in my pocket for a couple of hours only to discover that after a 30 minute phone call the battery is about to die.

Yep, my Evo was far faster than what he was showing. He did strive for a fair demo of the two, so I can't wait to see what's up with that either.

True dat, but one of his tech sites would not load nor display (would display on my Evo, not finish loading) - and his other load times, when side by side with the Sammy - dunno. I mentioned in another thread my Evo was loading those pages, same test conditions, slower than the SGS2, faster than the Sensation, and he had the two side-by-side. Hoping his Sensation was messed up somehow, other than by design.

 

[EarlyMon]

I'm trying to imagine either phone lasting with those rated talk times - wow!

hakujin - Haven't used Sense on the Hero, only the Evo, only with GB or a custom kernel. My browser and other Sense apps to perform quite well.

you2 - Yeah, the guy in that vid is a Samsung fan (not fanboy) so however he did things, I'd expect he's more comfortable configuring a Sammy than HTC phone. We'll just have to see. Seems like most comparison vids are rigged anyways - find the features where the horse wins, vid to those features, wait for your tube to go viral, profit!

Personally, I can't wait for the guy in this vid to do a 3vo, SGS2 or Photon review - http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-shift-4g/254006-evo-shift-reviews.html#post2143819

 

[apinkel]

many users claim a different experience. common theme is 'laggy' and 'slower than stock dialer'. this doesn't surprise me. even sense dialer was laggy compared to GB 2.3.4 dialer for me. same w/ 3rd party keyboards. same w/ sense UI as a whole, but then you feel otherwise. I'm not sure why you don't understand why sense sense is more resource heavy, particularly on low memory devices like the hero. the difference is night and day between a Sense UI ROM (cooked or otherwise) and a CM or AOSP build. Proof is in the pudding. if you doubt, check out the heroc threads on xda (or here) and you'll realize I'm not alone, and it's in fact night and day. glad it works out for you though. i'm just pleased none of the aforementioned bring anything to the table that I would dearly miss.

To be honest, I haven't owned a sense phone (except a Touch Pro which was WM). So to be fair I should have kept my mouth shut on sense lagging or not lagging... the opinion I had of sense was simply based on playing w HTC phones in stores. Every HTC phone seemed as fast or faster than than any other phone I played with, stock or otherwise.

As for dialer one, I've never had a probem with it being laggy and this is the first I've heard of other folks having issues with it. Regardless, I do hope the android dev's add t-9 dialing to the stock dialer because I prefer to use stock when it meets my needs.

 

[you2]

For kicks I looked up my non-data phone talk time; ti is rated for 5.8 hours. The thing about the data phone is I don't know how they compute talk time. I.e, does it take into account the power spent driving the display; or is it computed based on teh device only being used for talking and other services 'magically shutdown'. I mean lets face it the battery in my phone is only 1000ma; if I had a 1700ma battery iit would last close to 10 hours - but it doesn't have the other data stuff running in the back ground so I have to believe that the rated talk time for the evo3d and photon are fictional (have nothing to do with actual typical use).

I'm trying to imagine either phone lasting with those rated talk times - wow!

 

[apinkel]

If I followed correctly, I understood that the IDEN/PPT band is moving to CDMA - http://androidforums.com/sprint/349124-future-sprint-800-mhz-band-posts-moved-evo-3d-forum.html

Appreciate the tip on SMR, tho, totally drew a blank there!

Yup, I did some more digging after I posted, since I wasn't clear about what portion of the upcoming network changes "SMR support" provided, and I came up with the same thing. So this means the E3D will (at least in theory) support the new CDMA push to talk feature when it becomes available on sprints network.

 

[hakujin]

hakujin - Haven't used Sense on the Hero, only the Evo, only with GB or a custom kernel. I've browser and other Sense apps to perform quite well.

I've read of people complaining of lag and FC issues (messaging) on the Evo w/ HTC Sense. Maybe it's offset by the lean mean fighting machine that is GB. My phone has progressively gotten faster since ownership, but usually it's the other way around. I commend Google immensely in this regard... integrated overlays, well... not as much. I prefer my coffee black and my scotch on the rocks.

To be honest, I haven't owned a sense phone (except a Touch Pro which was WM).

Yeah, it seems to be a well known issue complaint, either intermittently or constantly on many handsets. Carrier bloatware probably exacerbates the issue.

. Regardless, I do hope the android dev's add t-9 dialing to the stock dialer because I prefer to use stock when it meets my needs.

With you 100% there.

 

[jroc]

I'm trying to imagine either phone lasting with those rated talk times - wow!

hakujin - Haven't used Sense on the Hero, only the Evo, only with GB or a custom kernel. I've browser and other Sense apps to perform quite well.

you2 - Yeah, the guy in that vid is a Samsung fan (not fanboy) so however he did things, I'd expect he's more comfortable configuring a Sammy than HTC phone. We'll just have to see. Seems like most comparison vids are rigged anyways - find the features where the horse wins, vid to those features, wait for your tube to go viral, profit!

Personally, I can't wait for the guy in this vid to do a 3vo, SGS2 or Photon review - http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-shift-4g/254006-evo-shift-reviews.html#post2143819

lol....Yea he cracks me up.

 

[EarlyMon]

I've read of people complaining of lag and FC issues (messaging) on the Evo w/ HTC Sense. Maybe it's offset by the lean mean fighting machine that is GB. My phone has progressively gotten faster since ownership, but usually it's the other way around. I commend Google immensely in this regard... integrated overlays, well... not as much. I prefer my coffee black and my scotch on the rocks.

Yeah, it seems to be a well known issue complaint, either intermittently or constantly on many handsets. Carrier bloatware probably exacerbates the issue.

Wow - the bad grammer faerie beat me with her wand today!

FCs on Sense is a matter of bad configuration and is completely curable if/when encountered (thread for How to fix... in Evo Support & Troubleshooting forum). My Evo doesn't lag where novox77's did - neither of us being liars, I chalk that up to YMMV - and look to the 3vo (or any of these newer phones) to put that to rest once and for all.

Root, remove carrier bloatware, I don't care what kind of phone you choose, that's my advice.

Handcent, Go, or Chomp for the messaging win, in my opinion. Personally, I use Handcent.

obtw - Make mine a Grey Goose, thanks.