The Android beasts thread, 2015 edition

Tech, TV, Mobile, Internet and Geek Corner
41
Apparently the next nexus will be made by Huawei

42
That would be great. Hopefully it will encourage them to make more stock android phones. Though I hope the next one will have a <5" screen option. Though for China, I expect phablet sized would be more likely.

43
I think the backlash over the 6'' nexus 6 has been enough to put them off anything over 5-5.5

44
Anybody got any suggestions for me, an iPhone 4s user, who basically uses the device for phoning, texting, but predominantly as a hotspot for my iPad?

Seriously I haven't opened any app on the iphone, other than the SBB app, for over a year, so buying another iPhone simply doesn't make sense, nor would it make sense for me to buy top of the range android.

45
You could probably pick up a 5S, 5, or 5c for pretty cheap

46
Thought about that, but they're likely to still be more expensive than a new bottom feeder android that'll probably give me what I want - you already know how people still vastly overvalue Apple devices when selling second hand.

The other option, of course, is just to carry on with the 4s until it drops. I was just curious about the options should that happen sooner rather than later.

47
Get a Galaxy S4, they're cheap as chips on the 2nd hand market, robust, free of bugs (through numerous iterative updates) and best of all its 4G so will seem like a nice upgrade after your 4S. And since you're not a power user, you might actually get along with Samsung touchwiz since it does simplify things

48
A good shout but maybe the z1 mini over this. I get the feeling Slaphead won't want a screen which is too big. The z1 compact is pretty well specced and less than 300CHF sim free

49
for that, i'd go with a nokia candaybar phone. loads of battery life for phone/text. and hotspot with joikuspot, or whatever it is called. or alternatively a blackberry.

saw that they announced new ones at mwc:

http://www.cnet.com/pictures/nokia-r...hone-pictures/

50
Castro, great idea, but I'd like it to be easily pocketable. I've got an iPod touch latest generation, purely for music. That thing is approx the same size as an iPhone 5 and it's a pain in the rear end to extract in order stop and start music (my preferred headphones do not have inline controls).

The S4 for me is bordering on phablet territory, and although that may not be so much of a problem for my use, I'd still prefer smaller.

Also, to be honest, I'd prefer to buy new as the batteries with second hand phones are an unknown quantity. I know you can replace the battery with a lot of android devices, but replacing the battery might end up doubling the cost, depending on the phone.

51
Sticking with Samsung then, the S4 mini might be worth considering. You can scoop one up for half its original RRP, 219 chuffs new. Like its big brother it's also 4G, micrSD, SuperAMOLED display and its well built with most of the bugs ironed out

Of course there may be higher specced Chinese phones for similar money, but You get what you pay for build-wise.

52
My takes:

1) Huawei's new TalkBand - very cute and just a good idea.

2) Sandisk 200GB microSD - impressive but pricey (that should tumble though).

3) Lumia 640 - excellent low-cost handset and Windows anyway looks so fresh on a mobile (there's a nice buzz in the industry in general about 10 and MS are doing all the right things).

Special mention: HTC Vive - superb VR. It remains to be seen whether they can follow through on this though.

53
was there even a single worthy phone that came out of mwc this year?

54
I don't get the ambivalence towards the S6.. It has 4 major updates over its predecessor making it a worthy upgrade IMHO

Wireless charging One tap fingerprint recognition like the iPhone (i.e no need to slide) Solid metal/glass construction (adieu plastic) Wrap around screen

If I were getting a new phone it would be between the S6 edge and the Xperia Z4

55
i guess it was pretty boring. they might as well have called it the 6s.

wireless charging (i actually assumed it already had this). anyone who wanted it could have retrofitted it.

fingerprint - maybe useful, many don't trust having their biometric info on a phone anyway

metal/glass construction. IMO a backwards step, but i'm sure it will appeal to many.

wrap around screen - IMO a pointless novelty

in addition, it took other backwards steps e.g. sdcard support.

56
Do you remember when you first picked up an iPhone? You slid your finger to unlock it and giggled like a little girl. That was a paradigm shift in mobiles (although not to stoke Apple's ego too much, others were working on this sort of thing but Apple produced the reference design which defined the art).

That big bang has been slowing down ever since (no dark energy) to the point where new models are just slight increments over the previous ones and it's now just a choice of how you like your jewellery. That's why this year's mobiles at MWC were just not that interesting and we needed stuff like VR to start giggling again.

Take out: just pick any phone from the past couple of years which ticks your boxes. Apart from its lack of microSD it sounds like a Nexus 5 would suit you just fine. (Don't get the white one though, it gets grubby very quickly).

57
To me there are also 2 serious disadvantages

No SD card and expandable memory No changeable batteries

but agree, if I were to get a new phone NOW the S6 edge would be the one to get.

58
Before buying any phone, make sure you hold it your hands (powered-on) before making a decision.

The Samsung is certainly a lovely phone and kudos to Samsung for upping the design stakes, but there are no real-world figures on (e.g.) the battery life. The capacity is a bit smaller than expected but this is probably one of the compromises made for cosmetic reasons (I'm happy with compromises like that, you may not be). None of the new phones at MWC have been seen in the eventual retail configuration.

59
I agree with you. Android phones finally made it with the Nexus 5 where everything was pretty much good enough. Same for iPhone with the iPhone 6.

I wouldn't mind if we saw incremental upgrades to these e.g. making them lighter, expanding the storage/memory, putting in a better camera, extending the battery life, making them cheaper, making them more compact.

But it doesn't look like we are getting that. Instead of getting true innovations for improvement (e.g. full surface is a screen with intelligent software to allow you to hold it normally and not trigger adverse touch signals, breakthrough battery life, something I can't even think of yet) we're getting pseudo-innovation: let's make the edges curved, let's make it triangular shaped instead of a rectangle.

In this sense, I think Apple are better innovators, working on speaker through screen technology to reach the goal of having the entire surface as a screen etc.

60
Edge to edge display that acts as a speaker. So something like the Sharp Aquos Crystal then?

http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/19/60...print-hands-on

Apple innovates from time to time but let's not get carried away here. The above happened a year ago, somehow like the Motorola Atrix had a fingerprint sensor in 2010/11. Too early for its own good but still true innovation. Apple waited for a mature tech and it was a good business decision but I will always love the Lancias of the world and of any industry that try boldly to go where no accounting deparment in any company would allow them to.