From WP to My 1st Android Phone...Why I left...and Why I'll Be Back!

[peacefulberry]

Launcher Pro is much better than Nova...I had both paid versions of them.

Launcher Pro has more options and skins available for it too,plus you can customize it yourself very easily.

Don't be afraid to root it,it's really easy to do,and allows you to remove all the bloat plus gain the features you won't never get from a carrier. Plus you can have several backups on your SD card and switch whenever you want to....that is a great feature of doing it.

Your noteII only really lacks in it's 720p screen,and with the capability of switching your radio inside you can always have the best connectivity offered too..

If I ever own another Android it will be rooted as soon as I get it home. There are so many features your missing out on by not rooting. In the beginning I was scared too..but after reading how to and asking questions it was easy....just follow the instructions on how to and it works.

Too me,it's a necessary condition of owning a Android and the same thing holds true for a iPhone....too bad we can't do this with a WP as easy..

Now, which Launcher Pro are you referring to...because the one I saw hasn't been updated since 2011....you're right, would love different launchers/themes on WP. But, I understand why they haven't made it available in the past. It would be nice if in the future, this was allowed.

 

[peacefulberry]

Well.....for a couple of reasons,but....your right in this if you don't plan on rooting it..flashing a good kernel that allows you to clock it were it should have been to begin with.

The hidden potential in that quad core chipset is what it can be made to do in the right hands...and I can assure you that mine would outperform most 2014 phones.

It is one if not the best one for tweaking all aspects of it,from getting true color space renderings for movie play back to the absolute best sound quality of the Wolfson's DAC's it came equipped with.

Most folks don't really know how good a Note II really is in the right hands,and how much was downgraded when the NoteIII came out....

If yours had any lag after rooting and over clocking,it was not the phones fault,but your setup, and fwiw..real world testing on video throughput not synthetic benchmarks will show you just how well the phone stacks up for processing speed....

This is actually what drove me to purchase it...for one it was less than $400 for a brand new high-end 5.5" device! I know it's the previous version Note, but I just have a budget when it comes to phones. Secondly, I've been researching this for a while (knowing that my phone would eventually meet it's memory demise from the Other storage issue + the SIM error issues) and a lot of ppl complemented the ability to tweak it the way you want it for optimal performance. So, I always thought that I would root it if I didn't like something. Just didn't expect lag from 2 days of use.

What do you suggest for someone who doesn't want to root (yet) for optimal performance? I disabled S voice, turned off animations in Dev options, didn't have any games installed yet, disabled most of the bloatware (that I would never use), and performed a hard reset....anything else I should do? A lot of ppl say try Nova Launcher...what else should I do (without rooting)?

 

[DJCBS]

Well, in Android's defence, you went with the worst company to buy an Android phone from. Samsung.
Samsung itself fills Android with bloatware under the name "TouchWiz", their "Android Skin". That alone, for example, is so bloated it consumers almost haft the memory of the 16GB version of the S5.

That's why most Android fans prefer to go for GPE of the phones or to phones with stock Android.
Android is, in a sense, a lot like Windows on a PC. The more stuff you put into Windows, the slower it gets.

 

[peacefulberry]

Yeah I hear ppl either hate or love Touch Wiz...I had no opinion, because this is my very 1st Android device ever! I could have picked another Android device, but I need it for note taking, multitasking, etc. Is there another large Note-like device (either Android or WP) that does the same thing as the Note devices?

 

[Visa Declined]

The hidden potential in that quad core chipset is what it can be made to do in the right hands...and I can assure you that mine would outperform most 2014 phones.

Yeah, sure. Even if you found a custom kernel for that Exynos cpu and overclocked the **** out of it, it's still not going to have the performance of 2014 high-end Qualcomm parts. On top of that, the Mali 400 gpu on that phone sucks badly. As for the display and the color, it's a 720p amoled panel that looked good in 2012, but is no match for screens on this years phones.

 

[Blacklac]

Wolfson has low end DAC's just like any other company. Just cause they're Wolfson doesn't mean it a high end DAC. At all.

Not hating, I just don't think people realize that sometimes.

 

[Visa Declined]

Wolfson has low end DAC's just like any other company. Just cause they're Wolfson doesn't mean it a high end DAC. At all.

Not hating, I just don't think people realize that sometimes.

The Wolfson DAC in the Note II is pretty good, but they were bought out by Cirrus Logic recently so I expect the playing field to be leveled some time in the near future. I've never been big on the sound from Qualcomm soc's, but I started using Viper4Android on my Nexus devices recently and it sounds fantastic.

 

[Projectphill]

Funny I switched from android to WP and I absolutely love my 1520 and 8.1 just enhanced the experience my Moto X is my drawer resting. My only big problem with android is the OS is not unified as I type this if all devices got the Kit Kat 4.4.3 update everything would be gravy

 

[dorelse]

On the contrary, the thing I thought I would hate, I actually loved the most...TRANSPARENCY. In WP, you can uninstall carrier bloatware with the press of a button and in Android, obviously a root is required, so I was unable to get rid of the bloatware, but I was able to download Permission Manager, turn off carrier apps, opt out of personal ads, personalization of keyboard (done by 3rd parties), and everything else that I wanted to do for my own peace of mind. I was happy that Google at least formed some level of transparency, and said, Hey we use cookies and an advert. ID, but you can opt out of the tracking as much as possible. You can deny permissions, you can do whatever you want...its YOUR phone! For this reason alone, I will be back to Android! Not the apps, games, Googlesphere, etc. but the simple fact that I was given the option to be as public or private, as simple, or as custom...

To conclude, everyone (at least I did) says that Google is a privacy monster...and that may be true, but I now realize that to have a completely personal smartphone experience, you have to share your interests, activities, family, LIFE, etc...even Cortana will require to "learn" more about WP users if they want to have an optimal experience...so give me a lag-free or nearly lag-free experience and I'll be back!

I quit Android for WP precisely why you liked Google...and call it a 'privacy monster'... Google forces you into a G+ profile, forces your photos there, using your real name, forces you to consolidate your Youtube account under their 'One Google' initiative...all for the sake of convenience, when its really so they can track your every move, and translate that information into $$.

So...I find them to be quite the opposite of the 'privacy monster' you do...and why I moved to WP.

 

[saras112]

I use WP and Android, but windows phone is my number 1

 

[fatclue_98]

After reading a few of the posts it became so clear to me. The Android experience can't be fully realized until the device has been rooted and a custom ROM installed. At least that's the message I get from reading the posts. Use this launcher, use this ROM, upgrade the kernel, overclock it, etc. Is this really necessary? Is it an indictment of Android if it doesn't work properly out of the box?

WP is far from perfect, heck it's far from really good, but at least it works.

 

[Visa Declined]

It isn't necessary to customize an Android phone to make it work properly. You read a lot about people doing that on the internet, but they're the minority. People tend to go a bit crazy because the OS is so flexible, but most people don't.

 

[peacefulberry]

After reading a few of the posts it became so clear to me. The Android experience can't be fully realized until the device has been rooted and a custom ROM installed. At least that's the message I get from reading the posts. Use this launcher, use this ROM, upgrade the kernel, overclock it, etc. Is this really necessary? Is it an indictment of Android if it doesn't work properly out of the box?

WP is far from perfect, heck it's far from really good, but at least it works.

Well, you're right in the sense that Android is extremely customizable...but ask most Android users, and they'll tell you that they don't root their devices. Matter of fact, I'll almost bet that rooters are in the minority. As far as launchers...i see launchers as to Android as custom start screens are to WP... Just another way to personalize your phone. Lastly, WP doesn't "work" for everyone. In my case, my phone is unusable at times (literally)..its been having SIM card issues and WiFi connectivity issues for some time now. Throw in the sinking data (I'm now down to 1gb left) from the other storage issue, and I'm left with a beautiful, expensive paperweight! Its actually sad when you think about it...

 

[Visa Declined]

Wow, double post.

 

[anon(8938849)]

I just left Android for WP. Had a G2 and sold it to buy a 925. Not the best WP in the world but it will get me by until a new one come to T-Mobile.

As far as having to root your device to get the best Android experience, no. In fact I would advise against it because it brings more headaches and bugs than it's worth.

Bugs. This is the reason I left Android. Not some stupid privacy or malware complaints. It's just freaking buggy. Apps crashing constantly, whole phone crashing... Now I realize that in the world of technology these things will happen, on any platform. And I'm very familiar with Windows desktop so I know it's not free from bugs.

But Android, and Google in particular have gotten so bad I couldn't use it anymore. Google develops some of the best looking, most feature packed software. But they just can't make it work good. Google music, YouTube, and the play store have been almost unusable for weeks. Xbox music has been worlds better. Even YouTube on the desktop won't load videos half the time still. Screw Google their developers are terrible at what they do. Bottom line. Windows Phone just works.

 

[Visa Declined]

That's funny, I've been using Android since Froyo came out, and I've never experienced apps or the OS crashing or being buggy. The G2, which you say you owned is really the same hardware as the Nexus 5.. Something I DO own.. it's been an awesome device.

 

[anon(8938849)]

That's funny, I've been using Android since Froyo came out, and I've never experienced apps or the OS crashing or being buggy. The G2, which you say you owned is really the same hardware as the Nexus 5.. Something I DO own.. it's been an awesome device.

First of all, it's the same processor package, other than that they are not the same hardware at all. And I've had both.

And second... Huh? Are you really claiming to have used Android for several years and never experienced crashing??

 

[Flagz]

That's funny, I've been using Android since Froyo came out, and I've never experienced apps or the OS crashing or being buggy. The G2, which you say you owned is really the same hardware as the Nexus 5.. Something I DO own.. it's been an awesome device.

Different users, different experience I guess. My fiance owns a brand spanking new S5, and literally hours later before she was going to bed she was complaining. She said it was freezing and it wouldn't unlock (I saw her trying to unlock it, it took 30 seconds to refresh and register all the unlocks/locks at one time). Sometimes the phone wouldn't lock either. I've seen her pull RH e battery more times than my phone has ran out of battery, and that's all within a month. Sadly there's no WP upgrade for Tmobile until fall, so I'm getting the G3 next month as well. I know its gonna be a **** show, but I really need to use this JUMP otherwise ill feel ripped off.

 

[Visa Declined]

First of all, it's the same processor package, other than that they are not the same hardware at all. And I've had both.

They have the same SOC, supposedly the same wifi/bluetooth chips, 2gb of ram each, they have different screens and camera's.



And yes, I've had an app occasionally crash. But let me again quote what you said.

It's just freaking buggy. Apps crashing constantly, whole phone crashing...

This would only happen with faulty hardware. You're painting all Android devices with a very wide brush by claiming that this is how they act in general. It's simply not true.

 

[anon(8938849)]

They have the same SOC, supposedly the same wifi/bluetooth chips, 2gb of ram each, they have different screens and camera's.



And yes, I've had an app occasionally crash. But let me again quote what you said.



This would only happen with faulty hardware. You're painting all Android devices with a very wide brush by claiming that this is how they act in general. It's simply not true.

Certain handsets are better than others, hardware wise. But the Android os in general is buggy and has force close often, including phones freezing and having to be reset/battery pulled. Often. Yes certain handsets perform better than others, at random. Many people get lucky and don't have many problems. But to say that ONLY defective hardware would cause those issues is untrue.

But to clarify. A lot of the specific issues I've been having lately are less an Android OS problem and more a Google problem. Across many devices that I've seen the play store has been having problems where it won't download apps, at random, for a day or two. Google play music servers freeze up and music stops all the time. YouTube buffers forever and requires multiple refreshes sometimes for a video to start. Even on the desktop which is a Google server problem again. I've also had conversations with others on Google plus experiencing the same problems.