Android Phones Coming Soon

[Chris]

Well, having spent the evening using my new Galaxy Note I'm very impressed. I'm switching from an iphone 4 where I was paying £51 a month. I'm now paying £36 for a phone that is much faster, better design IMO and just works. Yes it is a bit big, but I don't use my phone for calling often (out of 1200mins I used 16 last month) and generally just browse the web or send texts/email.

It runs smoothly, I have got most of the apps I used on my iPhone for android and have also managed to get my contacts from outlook. I've synced all my media from itunes and all works ok! Have installed netflox too! works amazing with such a high resolution screen!

The only downside so far is that I can't seem to find a way to put apps into folders like my iphone and I'm having to get my head round home screens and the apps folder and the widgets!

Overall it's brilliant!!

[Chris GB]

Well, having spent the evening using my new Galaxy Note I'm very impressed. I'm switching from an iphone 4 where I was paying £51 a month. I'm now paying £36 for a phone that is much faster, better design IMO and just works. Yes it is a bit big, but I don't use my phone for calling often (out of 1200mins I used 16 last month) and generally just browse the web or send texts/email.

It runs smoothly, I have got most of the apps I used on my iPhone for android and have also managed to get my contacts from outlook. I've synced all my media from itunes and all works ok! Have installed netflox too! works amazing with such a high resolution screen!

The only downside so far is that I can't seem to find a way to put apps into folders like my iphone and I'm having to get my head round home screens and the apps folder and the widgets!

Overall it's brilliant!!

Been looking at the Galaxy Note. I don't really need it, but I do like the look of it. Quick question, does it have the standard Google calendar and email apps?

Chris

[Chris]

It has email (gmail) and also email for your own accounts. It has S Planner as its Calender app. Interestingly it has populated with events from my Facebook!

[JLneonhug]

an iphone 4 where I was paying £51 a month.

**** me! lol thats a business phone right?

On the creating folder bit, you can create folder by press hold on empty part of the home screen -> folder -> new folder. Else if your on ICS you just drag one icon above the other to make a folder.

[Phil-E]

I can't believe the price you have to pay with the iPhone 4 to get it free! Crazy.

They're good but I really doubt they're that much better than a much cheaper android alternative.

Liking the look of the new HTC lineup! Quad core anyone?

Phil

[gadgetman]

Liking the look of the new HTC lineup! Quad core anyone?

But no SD slot or Gorilla glass!

HTC seriously dropped the ball here

[Phil-E]

Ah!

Not had a proper look at the specs yet!

Gorilla glass doesn't bother me... I always use a protector anyway.

But not having an SD slot could be a problem.

I assume they will offer it in 16/32GB capacities. 32gb would do me fine but would still be nice to increase that.

Phil

[MartynVRS]

I've never filled the 8gb card in my Desire let alone 16 or 32gb. Provided apps can be installed on all of the available memory I'm not bothered

[Phil-E]

I use my phone as my MP3 player too though. Plus I have a lot of apps and games. Plus I also use it as my sat-nav both in UK and in Europe so the maps take up a bit of space too.

32GB I could live with. But if it was 16GB I would need a memory card too.

Phil

['daiking']

Next iPhone to have card slot and removable battery

[JohnMcL7]

But no SD slot or Gorilla glass!

HTC seriously dropped the ball here

It may still have a gorilla glass equivalent though as the patent has expired now on the technology so companies can use the technology without the branding or something, I've read extensive discussions on it with the Galaxy Note which officially doesn't have Gorilla glass unlike its little S2 brother but apparently the company who produce the Gorilla glass product worked with Samsung to produce the screen coating.

The lack of SD slot though is a concern as more Android devices seem to be doing this (the Galaxy Nexus does as well) which I find strange, the phones are physically getting bigger so there's room for the micro SD card slot and it gives a cheap way to expand the phone's memory as well as backing it up in case the phone dies and the memory isn't recoverable. I have a Galaxy Note which comes with 16GB onboard memory and bought a 32GB card for £18 although I could have added a 64GB card if I'd wanted. Given the phone has powerful hardware, a great camera and a large high resolution screen I've been quickly using up the memory and probably wouldn't have bought the phone if I was stuck with just 16GB or 32GB onboard.

John

[Chris GB]

Must say that for me, using the phone as the MP3 player, support for a 32GB card is essential. But there are some deeply impressive devices out there these days, Galaxy Note being at the top of my likes list.

Chris

[SnailUK]

Must say that for me, using the phone as the MP3 player, support for a 32GB card is essential.

I used to really hate the fact i had only 16gb on my iPhone, and was always shuffling music.

I then spent some time looking at my stats on itunes, and found 90% of the music i owned, i never listened to, or skipped straight through. Since then, i've been more effective managing my music collection, and very rarely get above 4gb of music on my phone.

To be honest, i wished i'd learnt that lesson, before getting a 16gb iPhone over an 8GB, or before upgrading the drives in my PS3 or NAS, both of which have 100s of GBs of content i'll probably never listen to. And thus money i've wasted upgrading HDDs.

[lfc958]

I have recently purchased SIM free a Motorola Atrix 4G, well impressed with the speed, battery life & ease of use. ( & I didnt pay over £350 for it)

I am on an o2 sim only contract & have bought phones outright so i am not tied to 18 / 24 month contracts,( regardless of free upgrades, your still tied to the range of phones that your supplier has.)

My last phone was Android & I used it for 18 months before making my current purchase ( it will do as a backup if my current one breaks).

Alternate is the new HTC One X ( quad core)- Specs look very good, only downside is the battery is not as good as the Atrix,( dual core) & the Atrix will last a day with reasonably hard use.

[Chris]

I love my note, however battery life is pretty poor. I haven't used it a great deal today but it is down to 20%...my iPhone is at 60%. It was much better with power saving mode, however the Note kept going into a deep sleep and had to do a battery pull reboot a couple of times. So far so good with power save off.

[Raf_]

Have you tried an uprated battery? I use anker ones in mine and I get over a day with heavy use.

[JohnMcL7]

I love my note, however battery life is pretty poor. I haven't used it a great deal today but it is down to 20%...my iPhone is at 60%. It was much better with power saving mode, however the Note kept going into a deep sleep and had to do a battery pull reboot a couple of times. So far so good with power save off.

Which Note do you have and which rom are you running? The first couple of releases weren't great for batterylife but I've found they've got quickly better, my Note is sitting at around 70% and it's had reasonable use today (few calls, texts, browsing, push mail, checking news/tweetdeck, 15 minutes video playback and an hour of Iplayer) - it's a German Note that's not on the most recent official update (released a couple of weeks ago, seems fairly minor) but the one before that. I do find data usage absolutely canes the battery if I'm doing a lot of web browsing during the day but then I haven't seen a phone that doesn't behave that way. I've never had to do a battery pull on my Note either although for some reason the German Notes are very quick to be updated but other territories are not.

John

Edited 29 February, 2012 by JohnMcL7

[Chris]

Finding its much better now i have given it a couple of big charges.