Androids, Everybody needs good Androids - The Bear and Badger

afgavinstan

The Z3! It's still going very strong but I want new shinys and I'll probs sell this on as its already unlocked.

cockbeard

That's what I was thinking, it's not much of a step up from z5, but I'm the biggest sucker for shinies, so can't really say much

hunk

@aj
Xiaomi and 1+ are usually well supported by devs with many custom roms (usually aosp) to choose from especially qualcomm hw. 1+' oxygen rom is close to stock as is so no biggy.

Miui is actually a very good rom. It started out as an ios clone but is now very much its own thing. Very well maintained too, much more up to date than samsung/htc especially when you're on the global beta. Stable as fuck and weekly updates are icing on the cake.

Asus is also decent. Their skin is the heaviest but you can replace it with a different launcher like google now. Like on pc, Asus smartphones come with some bloatware so beware. Updates/upgrades are slow to trickle down but at least they implement security patches every month. Zenfone2 has got cyanogenmod support, I'm expecting the same with zenfone3.

Kow

cockbeard wrote:

That's what I was thinking, it's not much of a step up from z5, but I'm the biggest sucker for shinies, so can't really say much

From what I've read, it's a bit of a step down from the z5. The z5 is actually more expensive than the x here.

cockbeard

Better processer, more RAM, laser focus camera, better glass

Bigger, not waterproof and shorter battery life

Can't imagine much real world benefit to processor and ram. I don't game heavily, but am a bit of a power user, and the z5c never felt sluggish

Facewon

This HTC is sinking fast in my estimation.

Random issue with swiftkey not Letting me do ?

Trying TouchPal, which is htcs flash keyboard. $5 subscription. Get fucked. It's terrible.

Now the phone won't let me put the phone app in the dock. FFS.

Kow

A subscription keyboard? Wtf? I just looked at their website and it's not even optimised for mobiles. Pretty poor show, that, considering what they sell.

GooberTheHat

Is the z5 compact any cop? I'm thinking of picking up a refurb and going giff gaff.

cockbeard

I like small phones and it's the best small phone

Usual Xperia bug bears of overheating, or at least feeling like it's overheating, but beyond that, if you want a phone you can fit in your pocket then that's the choice I'd make. With this X Compact coming it might drop in price a little more at the end if the month, but as Kow says, it might not as it's still essentially a premium phone

afgavinstan

Weeeeey, finally Three are straight with me and tell me that the XZ is launching on Friday with them. Friday being the day I'm gonna be rushing like fuck getting ready to leave for a weekend away... Hmph. Still, good news for new shinys.

Facewon

Thank Christ. Reinstall has fixed ? Issue. No more touch pal.

Facewon

???? Ahhhhh.

GooberTheHat

Google pixel any good then?

AJ

Dunno, I saw the price and lost interest.

isanbard

I thought the AI bit and the integration with Home looked to be pretty interesting. Google Now is excellent as it is with recognition for me and if they can now boil in some of the fluffy language parsing and more natural response.. Google know just about everything about most people now so why resist?

My current phone is still fine but when it comes to a new one I'd certainly look into it.

Skynet has already won John Connor.

cockbeard

Just like their Chromebook pixel and Microsoft surface it's not likely to drop in price anytime soon. I would fully expect this newer google now to be baked into android 7 (or

so I think I'm likely to just stick with best hardware per pound then head down this path

I've had a long standing interest in Google Home and that wireless speaker doesn't seem crazy expensive, but unsure how best to integrate lights and thermostat etc

pc71

Any recommendations on a mid range phone? I was thinking of moto x pure/style...or even the budget moto g4. I have the first gen moto g but kind of interested in upgrading but not willing to spend 800 euros.

Kow

You can probably get a better phone by adding a few euros to your bill every month. Or you could try the One Plus Three (399€). https://oneplus.net/es/3 or One Plus Two (319€) https://oneplus.net/es/2

AJ

Kow wrote:

You can probably get a better phone by adding a few euros to your bill every month.

Along with loosing the ability to freely switch, he'll probably get a worse contract doing that, too. I looked into it a while ago and it astounded me just how shit everything on offer was; I'd definitely buy mid-range and keep my contract, if it was me (which it might be soon, the way my current phone's going). It's not like premium phones really add much now, anyway.

Kow

He's in Spain too so it's a bit different. I got my z5 at what works out about 450€ over 2 years, as opposed to about 700 new. The contract was more or less the same contract I already had anyway, I wasn't going to change it.

AJ

Ah, I forget who's where. In that case, ignore my advice 'cause it's all about the UK.

Facewon

Flu all week has had me actually playing games on my phone.

Six! Is kinda cool tetris clone. Aus$6 is a bit much though. Ads are not that bad though in the free version. One top banner and a full screen when it's game over.

Bad Banker is keeping me quite entertained though. Grid and number matching, with the banking angle kinda subtle, but free and lovely to look at. And goes as long as you want.

Have worked out the early game meta. Now stuck trying to get the next benchmark high score.

Facewon

Also, that was written with SwiftKey. Thank fuck. No money has gone to touch pal. And I even went out of my way to one star review.

afgavinstan

afgavinstan wrote:

Weeeeey, finally Three are straight with me and tell me that the XZ is launching on Friday with them. Friday being the day I'm gonna be rushing like fuck getting ready to leave for a weekend away... Hmph. Still, good news for new shinys.

So I come back from the weekend away yesterday and go to the Glasgow Braehead branch. They don't have it yet.

I do a live search for "three xperia" on Twitter and see them tell a customer on the 7th that it will be available on the 12th, but then tell another customer on the 8th that they have no information whatsoever about that handset. This is all after the same account told me that it'll be the 7th it comes out (as did a store manager that shown me an internal info pack that had "LAUNCH DATE: OCTOBER 7TH" in big letters on it). OK so yeah differently people will reply to different tweets that's cool, but ffs some consistency please?

Asked them again today (assisted by screenshots) and have been told that they don't know when they're getting it.

Yup, complete first world problem but fuck me, the inconsistency is extremely frustrating.

Roujin

Fuck 3 and their new phone policy. I waited an eternity for the Lumia 1520, then the 950xl and the fuckers said they were getting both only to then drop all windows phones apart from the budget phones months after the handsets had been released elsewhere.

Had to buy off contract, harumph. Jokes on them, because unlike a note7 the 950xl isn't subject to a global product recall.

Diluted Dante

And yet, there are still more Note 7 owners.

Roujin

I know but I dont even have to take a laptop with me m8 if I go to a different office. I plug my phone into the continuum hub thing plug it into.a monitor or projector whip out a mouse and keyboard and use that shit in PC mode. Full fucking Office apps and everything.

Like get completely shit on anyone trying to tell me their phone is better as a business tool, it isn't.

Windows phones have shitty app support for popular games and a lot of trendy social media apps but the OS is too good imho ymmv, etc.

AJ

Roujin wrote:

whip out a mouse and keyboard

Surely that's almost as big as carrying a laptop around?

Roujin

Yes, offices never have spare mice or keyboards.

If I had to take my own I'd get one of those folding keyboards. Mice are tiny anyway.

In any case, I mainly came in here to sympathise with Gav's shit 3 phone supply issue. Don't want to annoy the droid users, but as ever y'all gotta be hating on the forever alone windows phone club.

afgavinstan

Hahahaha, sorted now. It's finally gonna be in my hands tomorrow morning.

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