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-   -   Android Thread: Phones / Apps / Mods (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/83859-android-thread-phones-apps-mods-1501.html)

Actually Motorola has a very nice Moto Store in Jaynagar. They had opened the showroom to allow people touch and feel before buying online.

Unfortunately even that is a half hearted attempt. I went to the store last week and they didn't have a single 2015 phone model or watch on display.

On display was Moto X 2nd Gen, Moto G Gen 2, Moto E and a Motorola turbo.

They said Motorola hasn't added any new phones in the store since the store opened last year.

On the other hand, I'll be ordering the Nexus 5X during Christmas. My Moto X Gen2 should be back with new battery and secondary board replacement but it's better to sell it off incase other problems start arising.

I thought long and hard about the Moto X Style and I was initially sold on it. After one look at in real life and using it for a 10 mins, I abandoned it straightaway.

Moto Style does seem kind of an overkill size-wise, its 180 grams would be felt quite a bit during single handed operation too. Is it in the Samsung level of glossy plastickyness?

Yup weight was also an issue.

It's nothing like the Samsung when it comes to plastickyness! The Moto X style is awesome in build. The frame around is aluminium with a very nice textured rubberised rear panel. Way better than the Samsung in premium feel.

On the other hand the Nexus 5X is all plastic and feels much cheaper for 30K price tag.

This year Samsung has come out with a lot of entry and mid level phones. While I have never been a fan of Samsung phones, I have to admit, that they are the only ones which give you such a huge variety to choose from no matter what your smartphone budget is.

For those who have been discussing on running older operating systems, just remember that the older versions are left out of security patches as well (one of the pain points with Android based devices). It is only this year that Google started issuing monthly security patches. Sadly most manufacturers never release them to the end users.
So, there are literally millions of vulnerable devices.
The best bet still is to go with the Nexus series of phones (decent hardware and always the latest software).
As far as performance issues are concerned, I think more than the operating system, it is the every-growing complexity of the apps which is where the problem lies.

Apps such as Facebook are taking more resources than they were a year ago, as they add more and more features.
I sometimes think that there is a nexus (no pun intended) between the social media agencies (such as Facebook and WhatsApp) and the phone manufacturers whereby consumers are forced to upgrade hardware every 12-18 months since things eventually slowdown.

Couldn't wait. My stupid HTC's WiFi radio stopped working.

Went to Vijay Sales to check out the S6 Edge & Sony Z5 in person. Didn't like the shape of the Z5, nor the fact that it was a little bigger than I thought.

Within 2 minutes of playing with the S6 Edge, I was in love :D. Thanks to all who recommended it.

- Almost the same size as my HTC One. This was a big, big plus.
- Looks fantastic! Build quality feels very premium.
- Very light & very thin.

Decided on the S6 Edge 64 GB and the salesman was all smiles. I told him to hold it - opened up Amazon.in on my phone and told him to beat the price. In a minute (after making some fake calls to his 'manager'), he cut the price down to 45,500. This is cheaper than Amazon! Brick & mortar stores are badly hit by e-commerce and fixed pricing is a thing of the past. Vijay Sales never, ever used to drop prices like this before.

It was a no-brainer. He also threw in some screen replacement / protection for 1 year. They're currently running this scheme.

I'm going to see what extended warranty programs are there and buy the max coverage (as I do for my cars). I find it difficult to digest that a 50k laptop can serve reliably for 5 years, but a 50k phone starts developing all kinds of issues in less than 2 years. I would've easily used the HTC One for another year if it were working fine.

Samsung has it's own extended warranty for Smartphones. It extends your warranty for one more year, I took up the extended warranty program while some discount was going on and paid Rs.1.2k for my Samsung Galaxy S4. Although it doesn't cover any external damage or liquid lodging in the phone. Since I'm a student, I've had budget issues and got the S4 for 15k when amazon had an ongoing deal during May '15. It's been nearly 3 years since the S4 was launched and it was outdated when I got it. But S4 being a flagship phone back then has nearly all the features smartphones have these days. It's been 7 months since I'm using the phone and I'm loving it. There has been no way this phone disappointed me. And since you own a S6 edge, trust me GTO, you will love it to the bits. And Samsung phones last long if they are not used very roughly. And lastly, congrats on the lovely purchase. :)

Congrats on the S6! I wouldn't recommend extended warranty as modern Phones are extremely reliable hardware wise. For all the software related help you want, go to that geek friend of yours. :)
At most, the service centers just reinstall the OS. :Frustrati

I know a relative who had bought the extended warranty for his Note2 at the samsung service centre. He used it when the phone was 18 months old for some damage.


They do have the Extended warranty, but there's little info on the website:
http://www.samsung.com/in/support/warranty/
http://www.samsung.com/in/support/ht...endedwarranty/

There are a lot of third party insurance schemes, but my personal experience has been terrible.

Friends,, my Sony xperia M is showing the following message on the screen-

Type password to decrypt storage.

The phone is remaining unusable and after checking forums, understand the only way to repair is to repair using PC software or to change the mother board completely. Has anybody experienced this issue?

Any feedback or suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

Hi friends,, I am an android user and after seeing the drop in iPhone 5s prices, planning to go for that. Would it be wise to go for an older model like 5s or go for a newer android like 1+2 , within similar price range.

Any pointers ?

Many thanks in advance

First of all, GTO congrats on the S6! It's a great device, and may god bless you with minimal lag over the years (yeah, minimal; Samsung's can't have nil! Am typing this on a Samsung, so I know).
Wait. Isn't that a bit serious? It's an erstwhile flagship, and within 2 years you've got critical parts of the phone going kaput. What the hell! I mean, doesn't matter now that you have a new phone, but I feel HTC should know about this. Their fans like to call them 'Fiats of smartphones'. Fiats don't fall apart in a couple of years. Not the modern ones, at least.

So true. However, I'd like to believe it was a one-off case of your HTC. And you shouldn't have so many problems this time around. High end Samsung's, if they don't have any real issues in the beginning, tend to age very well. There are all kinds of high end Sammy's in my family, and there have been no complaints from anyone. My own tablet (Note 8.0) will be three years old this summer, and you'll have a hard time believing that if you have a look at it. It has never worn any screen protection, only has had a third-party flip cover, and is on its fifth major OS version. Not a scratch on the screen, and the body is still mint. Still going strong.
However, I had bought it for an extra 11k over the brilliant Nexus 7 back in 2013, just because this one was an inch bigger, and had 'multi-window', and many cool 'features' from Samsung. I totally regret that decision now. I couldn't have been more stupid in my life. I mean, it's still a great tablet, and I love it, but way out of support, and the Nexus 7 on the other hand still has STOCK official Marshmallow from Google. :Frustrati

I second LC on that. I personally don't feel extended warranty is all that necessary. High end Samsung's do age well, and another thing is, as long as you're under warranty, you're stuck with Touchwiz. And GTO might not be into modding and stuff, but take this. You might not have any gripe with Touchwiz. I had bought my tablet specifically for Touchwiz. This is coming from an ex-fanboy. I was a complete Samsung fanboy in the 4.1 Jellybean days. Later, just in a year, I was so annoyed with it all, and stock Android had come so far, my tablet was immediately running CM11. And I didn't mind sacrificing the stylus functionality, the multi window, smart everything gimmicks and other stuff, and last few weeks of the warranty for it. That's how bad things get later. Especially, if one has a Nexus or Motorola around him, the difference becomes all the more visible.

On another note, I am quite amazed how Samsung has managed to completely turn around the aesthetics of their phones and attract the eyes of people. Till last year, they were all horribly cheap and plasticky, and come this year, we have had many people buying a Samsung just for its design and build! Also, they have played it really smart by incorporating their trademark curved screen into their flagship devices. A separate Galaxy edge wouldn't have seen a fraction of the popularity the S6 edge is now seeing.
I had conducted a poll in the Android community of G+ a few months ago, and asked people worldwide why they like the S6 edge over the regular one. From around a thousand votes, over 70% said just for the cool looks. Less than 20% cared for any little utility that the edge may provide.

Have been using Samsung S3 for the past almost 3 yrs now. The phone has remained largely trouble free except that its gotten a bit slow & lethargic, apps like Instagram, Twitter take more than 5 seconds to open!
I do not know whether its time for me to upgrade to another phone like Samsung S6 or something like the iPhone 5S now that its available for 25k. Heard the iPhone's are lag free most times.
Or should i continue using my S3 for another 6 months or so since i'm not a very heavy user & largely content with my phone.:confused:

If you are running the stock software, I would seriously recommend you to try out Resurrection Remix official 5.1.1 custom ROM on the S3. That ROM literally transforms the phone, and brings stock Android 5.1 Lollipop with unbelievable number of awesome features. It is based on Cyanogen and brings in lots of features feom all other major custom ROM's. The performance gap between a normal S3 and one running RR is unbelievably huge. The stuttering just vanishes and everything is buttery smooth. It is also perfectly stable and has no bugs heard of. The cool tricks that it packs in include Active Display, editing functions of buttons, customisable notification panel and lock screen, optional on screen buttons, an awesome equalizer app AudioFX, a great music player, and editable everything. Just totally try it out if you haven't. I have installed it on 2 S3's in the family myself and can vouch for it. It just totally transforms the entire thing. And it's a breeze to install via Odin. Would take around an hour, 400-500mb of download and a factory reset. You can find a quick guide on XDA or YouTube, or I could help in any way I can. Just drop a PM for any help, download links for the latest version and Google Apps package.
And the same way, Marshmallow will also come up in a few months. If you have no problems keeping your phone for a while, just really try this one out! And yeah, use it with Google Now launcher. It feels completely like a Nexus. The stock launcher itself has some neat features built in, but in my opinion it looks too barebones. Google now launcher is directly from Google, gives full Google now sync and "OK Google" command on the home screens.

Here is a quick review of the ROM,http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WEbBwOeqKqA and here is a comparison between a stock and a 'Resurrected' S3. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2zhQeLouTdM

If you decide to keep your phone for a while, install a custom rom like CM or SlimROM on your phone. (PM me if you need help)

I have used an S3 both with Samsung's bloat software as well as a custom ROM. The difference is unreal.

Depends on your usage. 1+2 *may* (I've not used it extensively in person) have nicer camera and may be more future proof - 5s has a useful life of two years tops, by when it will get too slow for the latest versions of apps. For people with simpler needs, it will suffice for 3-4 years. Why?
https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT201377

Apple allows you to download the oldest version of the app compatible with your device. To the best of my knowledge, you can't do that on Android - you can only download the current version. But you MUST NOT update iOS beyond 8 or worst case, 9!

Let me know what you finally do. My S3 is my backup phone. I'm tired of hearing people rave about new S3 ROMs. After much trials, I'm still at my CM10.2 (Android 4.3) which is stable but not lightning fast. If you experience remarkably fast app opening times on the recommended ROMs, let me know.

I am somewhat surprised. CM10.2 is old beyond obsolescence now. And I have personally flashed Resurrection 5.1.1 official on the S3. Two of them in fact. It just flies in comparison to the stock firmware. You can check out the video too, that I shared in my last post. In real life, it's even better. But then ultimately it is nearly a 4 year old device now, and if your other phone is a much newer iPhone, it won't obviously have the same level of responsiveness. But for anyone who is fine with the processing and camera ability of that phone, and has a light-medium usage pattern, the S3 I'd say is good for another year. Marshmallow development is going pretty strong too.