Android Thread

[unfnknblvbl]

Well, that was quick. Got delivered at about 11am today, which is fucking astounding, given I ordered it on Friday morning!

So far, I only have three gripes:

* it ships with a flat battery.
* it has a dedicated charger
* it doesn't come with a data cable

#1 makes sense, given how explodey L-ion batteries are, but it's annoying. Especially since the first thing it wants to do is update, but it needs to charge first.
#2 is annoying as I haven't had to deal with since I have up Nokia phones nearly ten years ago
#3 is almost unforgivable, since it uses USB-C and is sold as a developer device. Bah!

[unfnknblvbl]

First impressions:

With the developer discount, it's good value. It's a very well put together tablet. The light bar on the back is as cool as anything, and it's nice to see Google getting back to the idea that the corners of the screen is where system interactions should happen. I'm a massive fan of TabletUI (think the 3.x Honeycomb UI), and while this isn't the same, it's a nice step in the right direction.

The screen is nice. In fact, if I didn't have a Galaxy Tab S, I'd be over the moon with the screen. The Tab S, though, has the best looking screen of any tablet ever made ever. Nothing could ever compare to that.

The camera seems passable. There's no flash, which would be annoying if I was one of those people that took photos with my tablet.

There's also no haptic feedback, which I guess is the norm for tablets.

Comparing the Pixel C to the Galaxy Tab S is a little unfair though. The Tab S was way ahead of its time in most things. The Pixel C is much faster, and doesn't have fussy capacitive buttons on one of the bezels. Plus, it gets updates from Google, as opposed to no updates from Samsung.

I like it a lot.

[unfnknblvbl]

Split screen, hitches!

Screenshot_20160420-232816.png

[unfnknblvbl]

So, I had to return it under warranty. It was an unreliable POS that kept crashing. Seven times during initial setup alone, and an untold number of times just doing basic shit like web browsing.

Anyway, full props to Google's return policy. It's brilliant. You fill out a form on the store website, and they'll email you and (probably) call you a bit later. Then, once the troubleshooting has been done (in my case, I just replied to their initial email stating that I'd already done all the troubleshooting), they send you a link to order your replacement.

They send you a replacement before you send the defective unit back!

Of course, they put an authorisation on your credit card for the full price of the new device should you not actually return the old one, but that gets removed once they receive it within 21 days. Or, it'd better, anyway.

And possibly the best thing is the turnaround time. I ordered it on Sunday and got the replacement today. In the middle of fucking nowhere, Tasmania. The replacement unit hasn't rebooted unexpectedly once so far, which is a very good sign.

[t0mby]

Ordered my first brand new phone since I don't know when (my current phone was already 2yrs old when I bought it "refurbished" and unlocked). Went with the Xperia Z5 Compact as Telstra had just dropped the contract price by $15pm. Although the Premium is the same price on Optus and has a 4k screen, it doesn't suit my blue collar lifestyle and the size of the Compact is perfect for me. Only missing features that the Z5 and Premium have over it is that the Compact doesn't have wireless charging and that the screen is only 720p, but aside from that it's great to know I won't run out of room for apps since it has 32gb plus support for 200gb sd cards (current phone, Xperia M C1904, has 2gb and can't transfer to sd card).

Hoping I can upgrade the OS to Marshmallow as I've read it drastically improves performance.

[flipswitch]

So I downloaded some music from Google play and I use Black Player as my music player. The songs didn't show up no matter what I do on it.


Turns out music downloaded from Google play can only play in the Google play app.

I ended up buying an app called Music Mate which makes the files playable on any device.....

[Mavy]

I've downloaded music from Google play on my PC and can play it anywhere. Did you get the Google play downloader app? (PC).

[flipswitch]

Yeah, forget about that, I actually done it before. It's just stupid you can't play them once you download them from google play. Found a great music player called Black Player.

[t0mby]

Sounds racist.

[unfnknblvbl]

Ummm... I can play music downloaded from Google Play just fine?

[flipswitch]

http://android.stackexchange.com/questi ... ic-library" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[unfnknblvbl]

Ohhh you're talking about on your phone, not your PC

[itch]

I got a Nexus 6P. My OnePlus One got a deadspot on the screen... Only had it for about 15 months as well.

6P is great, it takes really good low light photos that look really natural. Can't compete with the battery life of the OnePlus One though, even though it has a bigger battery.

[itch]

Woah actually I just checked the post I made when I got my Oneplus and I've had it for less than a year. That's terrible!

Still, there were some things I really liked about the OnePlus One. Incredible battery life for one and really nice material design (the sandstone back). Also, it's I think the smallest 5.5 inch phone I've seen, it seems tiny in the hand.

[unfnknblvbl]

It's almost time to retire my 2014 Moto X. It's been a great phone, but it's randomly really fucking slow to boot, and it's only 16GB, which is quite annoying.

I want an HTC 10, but the only network worth dealing with here is Telstra, and they're fucking expensive for contact phones

[itch]

Nexus 6P on Virgin

[unfnknblvbl]

Got the HTC 10. It's good. I miss the wizardry of the Moto X, and it's kinda annoying how the buttons aren't vertically centred on the bottom bezel...

Sense is basically gone, which is great.

[t0mby]

That's my only gripe with my Z5C is the button placement, well volume buttons. They're still on the side, I just wish they were closer to the top than bottom. Having the fingerprint scanner on the power button is genius though and it works well.

[Rorschach]

My HTC One M8 is still going strong if a little janky at times. Would like a new phone but will go for something outright this time I think. Will probably go for the HTC 10

[unfnknblvbl]

Oh, that's my other gripe with the HTC 10. The power button is beneath the volume rocker. What kind of crazy shit is that?

[pilonv1]

That's the same on my HTC M9. Really like it except for the horrible camera. Probably the best Android implementation I've used outside of the Nexus devices

[unfnknblvbl]

oh man, I'd have to agree with that for the HTC 10 if I'd never used a Moto X. It's like HTC have completely removed Sense, it's that good. They haven't, but there's almost no trace of their signature skinning anywhere in the OS.
....but nothing is as good as the Moto X's Android. Not even Cyanogenmod is that good.

I'm now installing a custom ROM that brings back the lower navbar and removes the touch buttons. Should make it a bit nicer.

[flipswitch]

I'm so glad I bought a 64mb card for my gs7. I have 7 Blu ray titles on it plus 35 TV shows and some more DVD titles. And I have around 40gb left on both internal and on SD card.

Blu ray titles look absolutely stunning on the oled display.

[unfnknblvbl]

Only 64MB?

[flipswitch]

Sorry, that should have been 64GB.