Team-BHP - Android Thread: Phones / Apps / Mods

Quote:

Originally Posted by drmohitg (Post 3467834)

My nexus 5 is really turning out to be very poor in the battery department. I had hoped that with the recent android upgrades they would have addressed this. But it seems to have become worse. The battery hardly lasts me 10 hours after a full charge with moderate usage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by naveenroy (Post 3468003)

Guess its all Nexus devices. I loved the Nexus 4 but just couldn't manage the battery life. It was so bad that I sold it (for a good price though - already bought second hand).

Well my 2 year old G-Nexus easily lasts me a day and a half - sometimes even 2! That said, battery life is a major function of usage.

drmohitg, install betterbatterystats and see what is it that is draining your battery. Usual suspects are the location services and autosync (gmail/FB/whatsapp etc.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by drmohitg (Post 3467834)

Something is wrong either with the battery/phone or any app etc is using too much battery. I have experienced a very marginal increase in battery life post 4.4.3 upgrade (its on 4.4.4 now)

I use mobile data (when not at home) and using phone for WhatsApp etc, my battery (by the end of the day) has anything between 10-25% of charge remaining (depending on usage)

On a day, I believe call timing would be 1hr+ and I don't have any other phone/number.

Did a search and seems this has never been discussed on TBHP - Celkon phones. What made me tip off the chair a bit is a KitKat phone (Celkon Campus A35K for) Rs. 2,999 (on Snapdeal)! :eek: This must be the cheapest phone with KitKat out of the box, if not the cheapest Android.

But upon checking the specs, it seems the RAM is just 256 MB. I'm really wondering what kind of performance this phone will offer. I mean would it be able to run say a IM client while navigating? I know you cannot expect much with these kind of specs, but its no use excusing every shortcoming due for its uber low price if the phone isn't really usable. And there hardly seem to be any reviews online (Don't believe the reviews on Snapdeal. Speaking from experience. They haven't even published some of my reviews). Does anybody here by any chance own this phone? Any comments would be valuable.

If this thing is "usable" it might be the least expensive option for people with senior citizens or kids and would like to keep tabs on their location along with Whatsapp or whatever IM. Or maybe even for a driver or such.

In the very least, this phone should make all the other way more expensive smartphones, from big brands, still running antiquated versions of Android hang their heads in shame. :cool:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raccoon (Post 3468106)

Did a search and seems this has never been discussed on TBHP - Celkon phones. What made me tip off the chair a bit is a KitKat phone (Celkon Campus A35K for) Rs. 2,999 (on Snapdeal)! :eek: This must be the cheapest phone with KitKat out of the box, if not the cheapest Android.

But upon checking the specs, it seems the RAM is just 256 MB. I'm really wondering what kind of performance this phone will offer. I mean would it be able to run say a IM client while navigating? I know you cannot expect much with these kind of specs, but its no use excusing every shortcoming due for its uber low price if the phone isn't really usable. And there hardly seem to be any reviews online. Does anybody here by any chance own this phone? Any comments would be valuable.

If this thing is "usable" it might be the least expensive option for people with senior citizens or kids and would like to keep tabs on their location along with Whatsapp or whatever IM. Or maybe even for a driver or such.

In the very least, this phone should make all the other way more expensive smartphones, from big brands, still running antiquated versions of Android hang their heads in shame. :cool:

Runs Kitkat may be a euphemism. Does it offer MotoE/MotoG level of decent all around performance? maybe ?! A 1ghz processor may be fast enough for the 320x480 sized 3.5" screen or 512 MB ROM which went out of fashion in 2011! This is basically their take on the Galaxy Y, three years late, but with less RAM (which is the real worrisome issue here)!

But celkon may not have a samsung like bloat in the first place, so it may fly even with less RAM for all you know :D I think this may work well.

Coming to updates -

The thing is that updating an existing model stretches the company's scarce teams - why bother with an update for an existing model? People have low expectations from MMX etc on this account anyways. Few people buy those phones expecting a quick upgrade to 4.4.2 - unlike say the MotoG or the latest sammys.

From their side, the same small team can be better deployed to roll out the latest phones under development, no? bear in mind this phone came out in june, while 4.4.2 has been out since december. about the right time that 4.4.2 cascades to the latest budget models. Fast, but not exceptionally fast.

My suspicion is that indian OEMs offer the version that the chinese motherboard / processor mfrs support. For many smaller mfrs, what spice offers as their models, are basically their take on generic chinese handsets. e.g Spice MI410 is
1. Cherry Magnum HD in Philippines
2. Spice Mi 410 India
3. Wellcom in Thailand
4. Huwaei Ideous X6
5. Motorola Triumph

I think that when the chinese hardware vendors say our chips can run android 4.x - the indian mfrs load it. Without a complete level of support from the hardware vendors - it would be foolhardy for our OEMs to try porting 4.4.2 to their devices.

bear in mind that today, Xolo doesn't even bother to add its own name into their phones custom dictionary. Atleast didn't do with the Q1000S! :uncontrol

Quote:

Originally Posted by phamilyman (Post 3468126)

How can we expect Moto G level of performance from a phone that costs a fraction of the price? IMO the only realistic expectation we can have is if it runs a couple of apps (at least) simultaneously... like say an IM client, keyboard while doing other things like navigating, etc. Even apps like Skype have become quite heavy, and I wonder if they will run smoothly on such a device. Internal memory might also be an issue, since you cannot move many apps like Whatsapp, keyboards, etc., to SD. That may be good enough for some very basic use. Anything more is a bonus. Anything less and the device would be frustrating. Anyway, we need user reviews and there hardly seem to be any.

AFAIK, it is mainly customizations that delay updates. There would be of course other factors like support from chipset vendors, etc. In any case almost everyone hates these customizations and pre loaded bloat. If a manufacturer can do away with these things, we should have updates much sooner. How many devices we have right now, even from bigger players have Kitkat as out of the box or as an update? Very few! Goes without saying that this statistic should excludes Nexus and current Moto devices. Also, later updates I feel are often not upto the mark as once the manuf. has sold the device, they don't seem to bother about quality of the updates and then we have a device creeping with bugs. Some manufacturers like Samsung have also been accused of dishing out updates for >1 year devices that deliberately degrade performance, so as to nudge users to upgrade to newer hardware which isn't significantly superior. Sad state of affairs. Hope that is something Android One address effectively, thought right now it involves only 3 local brands.

Quote:

Originally Posted by girimajiananth (Post 3468172)

I did contact Huawei , their only immediate response was to send them a mail describing the problem. I decided to abandon them and somehow managed to convince the retailer to exchange the phone. My dad decided to buy LG G pro. Had to pay the difference of amount and VAT.

The dealer took back the used Huawei at the selling price? Must have sold the used device to some simpleton as a new device.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom (Post 3468727)

Current Android phone with the best camera?

http://www.samsung.com/in/promotions/galaxycamera/ ;)

Though its not a phone with camera, rather a Camera that has phone.

Realistically, any Android phone with:

1. Sony's Exmor sensor
2. Decent camera App (App will cost $20 or so) that allows control over ISO/Aperture/Shutter speed/Focal Length

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom (Post 3468727)

I thought it would be Sony (they ought to be good at camera technology) but reviews don't seem as good as the specs look to be. ....I was shocked by how good a friend's holiday pics, taken with her iPhone, were.

Sony does have the best sensor technology at the moment. That's why iPhone 5S uses Sony's hardware for camera. However, Sony does not have as good camera App as iPhone.

http://www.chipworks.com/en/technica...the-iphone-5s/

Quote:

Apple has opted to stand on an 8 Mp resolution for the 5S iSight camera, but have increased the active pixel array area by 15%. With the help of a larger f/2.2 aperture, the system delivers a 33% increase in light sensitivity.

The new iSight camera module has been refreshed with a custom 1.5 µm pixel pitch stacked (Exmor-RS) Sony sensor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute (Post 3468767)

I can totally vouch for the camera on S4. Brilliant pics everytime. With the steep fall in price, S4 is a steal IMO.

Thanks for that

Quote:

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay (Post 3468794)

http://www.samsung.com/in/promotions/galaxycamera/ ;)

Though its not a phone with camera, rather a Camera that has phone.

That looks like a great gadget --- but I don't think it is one for the shirt pocket?

Quote:

Realistically, any Android phone with:

1. Sony's Exmor sensor
2. Decent camera App (App will cost $20 or so) that allows control over ISO/Aperture/Shutter speed/Focal Length

Oh! Is that restricted to the Sony sensor? I suppose that, given the absence of actual physical camera hardware, control of focal length and aperture is virtual?

~

Quote:

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay (Post 3468794)

http://www.samsung.com/in/promotions/galaxycamera/ ;)

1. Sony's Exmor sensor
2. Decent camera App (App will cost $20 or so) that allows control over ISO/Aperture/Shutter speed/Focal Length
[/url]

Thats interesting info.

But which "decent app" costs $20? Most I'v seen/used cost much less? Or is there some 20 something $ app that blows all the cheaper, (and indecent? :p ) ones away?

Quote:

Originally Posted by girimajiananth (Post 3469092)

Might be , I suspect some golmaal too. After a lot of consumer court and sales tax threatening , he finally gave in. Now upgraded to LG G pro . Phone seems fairly good for now.

So you wouldn't recommend the Huawei to anyone, would you? As for the heating issue you mentioned, is it significantly more than that on your older G3 and new LG?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom (Post 3469047)

Oh! Is that restricted to the Sony sensor? I suppose that, given the absence of actual physical camera hardware, control of focal length and aperture is virtual?~

Other sensors "emulate" some of these changes. At the moment all phones with good camera (iPhone 5s, Galaxy S4, Xperia Z2) rely on this Sony sensor (And even DSLRs like Nikon D3300, D5300 etc use a bigger size Exmor).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raccoon (Post 3469093)

But which "decent app" costs $20? Most I'v seen/used cost much less?

Unfortunately, so single app does all things (I checked that few months back, so thing might have changed). You end up using different apps for:

1. Metering (Incident / Reflected with Zone or Spot)
2. Camera with Full manual + Bracketing
3. Processing