Smartphones

Ah, well, as it happens, the formal founder of Oneplus is Pete Lau, who used to be an Oppo VP. He left Oppo just at the end of last year to found Oneplus. And Oneplus already has a phone designed and in production? Word is the Oneplus One will have much in common with the new Oppo Find 7. (And, one presumes, Oneplus has production facilities at all because they contract them from Oppo.)

What's interesting about Oneplus is, in English, they're building a brand community on the back of internet interest in Android as tinkerers tech. There are people in this world who know how to program Linux and do hack phones. And there's a wider community of people who appreciate this access without actually being able to do it much themselves. They appreciate the immediacy of a community of hackers changing and developing the tech, and making those changes available as soon as they arrive, even if they don't work. These people talk about the "pure Android experience" of, say, a Nexus device - like that's something worth having - as if Google somehow designed the system better. (Technically though, since manufacturers like Samsung are most often hamfisted hackers of "the pure Android experience", this could be true.) The same appears to be happening in Chinese. The Oneplusers would seem to be following Xiaomi in that regard. (The company has, by the way, already signalled the supply they arrange will not meet demand, and that instead of pre-orders, they'll prefer to "satisfy" "true" demand by an invite system - thereby further hyping their scarcity cred - the fuckers.)

But aside for the fact it's probably going to be a pretty good phone (the Find 5 and Find 7 are well-regarded), the Oneplus One apparently will have all the 3G/4G bands (except Band 20). Buy it anywhere in the world, use it anywhere in the world (except maybe far outside the cities in Europe where the 4G will drop back to 3G)

Well that was interesting. The Oneplus One phone was officially launched today in Beijing, 2pm. The launch conference lasted a few hours. (It was streamed live on Youku.) And on the English language forum, a lo-o-o-t of pissed off talk got posted. Most of it's gone now. There was a lot of bad feeling about this "invite" system. The phone isn't going to be available directly for a while, and instead of server-busting xiaomi-style flash sales, and fan-annoying lengthy waits on pre-orders, you can vie - somehow - for an "invite". And there was a lo-o-o-o-t of talk about how big the phone will be - unexpectedly big - bigger than promised by a hip marketing trick. It was supposed to be "smaller" than a Sony Xperia Z1, and it isn't. Thus, the company lied. Plus, people were seeing a bit too much similarity between this Oneplus One and the Oppo Find 7a.

So it's interesting. Did they or did they not pooch the marketing? I really don't know. But, for instance, where Xiaomi is maybe now and forever basically a China phone, Singapore sales notwithstanding, it would seem that this Oneplus is insta-global. Perhaps it's the breakout China phone.

And it's huge.

Lotta heat still in the Oneplus English-language forums. There's some in the China-side forum too, but appears not as much (though there is some grumbling that the China version will NOT support WCDMA FDD). Is Oneplus pooching its marketing? Or more exactly, is the small company showing through the cracks in the big company image?

That might not be such a bad thing. Internationally speaking, they've set up this phone to compete with, basically, everyone - by specs they have a honking huge "flagship killer" which by price is making a move on Nexus territory, and by hype and marketing model is looking to move into the Xiaomi cool zone. That they're not delivering perfectly maybe is okay. But will these negative vibes get turned around sometimes later or will they stay?

Damn interesting marketing project to watch, though.


Full disclosure: I'm not getting one. I reckon I might go Nexus.

"Never Settle" turns out to be a bit more... subversive... than expected

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzA0MDk3NzA4.html

One sun sets, another also rises. I have on order a Nexus 5 (32GB, black, originally from Japan) and a Nexus 7 (the 2013 model, WiFi only, also 32GB and black). They should arrive sometime around Workers Day. Thus, the task of bitching about Samsung should soon pass to some other worthy. May God have mercy on their pockets.

Android 4.4 KitKat Update: Samsung Confirms Galaxy S3 And Galaxy S3 Mini Won’t Receive New Software

Samsung has confirmed that two Galaxy models will not be receiving the Android 4.4 KitKat update, the Galaxy S3 I9300 and the Galaxy S3 mini 3G models.

What Samsung said was:

“In order to facilitate an effective upgrade on the Google platform, various hardware performances such as the memory (RAM, ROM, etc.), multi-tasking capabilities, and display must meet certain technical expectations. The Galaxy S3 and S3 mini 3G versions come equipped with 1GB RAM, which does not allow them to effectively support the platform upgrade. As a result of the Galaxy S3 and S3 mini 3G versions’ hardware limitation, they cannot effectively support the platform upgrade while continuing to provide the best consumer experience. Samsung has decided not to roll-out the KitKat upgrade to Galaxy S3 and S3 mini 3G versions, and the KitKat upgrade will be available to the Galaxy S3 LTE version as the device’s 2GB RAM is enough to support the platform upgrade.”

Now, two things:

(1) Cyanogenmod 11 (Android 4.4.2) for i9300 (with 1GB of RAM)

Granted, cm11 has taken a turn for the seriously buggy in the last month, and you shouldn't install it until they get that stuff ironed out, but up until, say, April, Cyanogenmod 11 (Android 4.4.2) was operational (with imperfections - though it works fine on my phone). It multitasks 'n' everything.

And

(2) Shockingly, Nobody Uses Samsung's Annoying Smartphone Bloatware

A new study by Strategy Analytics indicates that nobody uses the bevy of bloatware that companies like Samsung include on their handsets. While Samsung recently patted itself on the back for having 100 million users for ChatOn (Samsung's messaging app), Strategy Analytics notes that US users spent around six seconds on average in the app. The firm strongly suggests that those actually using Samsung applications may only be doing so by accident.


In any case, my experiments with Samsung technology have ground to something of a halt. I have a Nexus 5 now, and winter is coming.

Just got myself the Sony Xperia Z1 compact （or colourful as it's known in China) and i absolutely love it. Operation is great, fantastic camera and sexy as hell.

Just got myself the Sony Xperia Z1 compact （or colourful as it's known in China) and i absolutely love it. Operation is great, fantastic camera and sexy as hell.

How's the battery life?

How's the battery life?

It's great. I can get 2 days of reasonably heavy use out of it.

I have things to do. I'll write a phone report instead...

LG Nexus 5

I honestly forget how much it cost - more than 2500, less than 3000. I got it on Taobao. I had some requirements and I'd known  for a long while I'd be buying one, so who remembers money? Anyway, what I wanted, and got, was

Nexus 5
32Gb, black
Model: D821 (not D820)
Batch number: 311K or later (not 310K)

32Gb because duh! Black because double duh! But the other specs, D821 and 311K or higher, were so it would work outside of the USA and wouldn't be one of the crappy first issue phones with the sound and wobbly buttons issues. The D821 and D820 have different 3G/4G capabilities. Basically, D820 for the US, D821 for everywhere else. And 311K means manufactured in 2013, November. The models produced after that time have bigger microphone holes and better quality volume and power buttons.

Right out of the box, number one, its a good feel phone. Such things are subjective of course, but after a year or so of the Samsung i9300, the square sides of the Nexus 5 are a joy. The phone is a lightweight black slab. People talk of "premium feel" and they're right, the Nexus 5 doesn't have that. It's light, well-balanced, has a soft-touch matte plastic back, but that doesn't add up to whatever this mysterious "premium" is. For me it adds up to a utilitarian feel, and I like that. It feels right in a phone.

The screen is whiter than the i9300. In the beginning it seemed washed out. It's not though. Exactly why this is I don't know, but my old i9300 screen has a really obvious blue tint (which isn't obvious at all until you compare it to the nexus 5). The other thing about the screen is how much closer to the surface it seems.

What I will say though is, right out of the box, I was kinda disappointed. I was used to phones with capacitive buttons, not the onscreen navigation keys of stock Android. That black bar at the bottom of the screen is ugly, irritating to use, and takes up way to much screen space. The Nexus 5 screen is officially bigger than the i9300, but with those onscreen nav keys, the effective screen is smaller (and kind of square, which is not nice). Personally, on-screen nav keys are a deal breaker, except where, as in the case of the Nexus 5, you can replace them with something infinitely better - pie controls.

Pie Controls

I use LMT for their pie controls (navigation control buttons shaped like pieces of pie that pop up on the side of the screen at the touch of a finger), which are eminently customizable, and fantastic in ways I wouldn't have believed. (I'd wanted to just try them out so I installed LMT on my old i9300 and literally stopped using the capacitive buttons overnight - the pie controls are just so much easier, even when you have dedicated buttons right there at the bottom of the phone.) I also installed the Xposed framework + Gravitybox (for Kitkat). The gravitybox module for Xposed Framework gives you customization options all over the place, like for instance, in stock Android the Quicksettings buttons in the notifications shade really are settings buttons - pressing them takes you to a settings page, which is annoying - and Gravitybox lets you turn the Quicksettings buttons into toggles, which is much more sensible. Many of the customizations in Gravitybox are standard interface features of Cyanogenmod, but the one I needed for the pie controls was the Expanded Desktop. With Gravitybox Expanded Desktop, you can make the horrible black nav bar disappear, leaving just the lovely LMT pie controls. Win!

The Wrap Up

So anyway, the phone has a nifty utilitarian chic and feels good to me. It runs everything smoothly and fast. For me the battery lasts 24 hours even with upwards of 5 hours screen on time (gaming and lots of media streaming not included). I get technically better reception (it varies minute to minute of course but the most common signal I get on the i9300 is -67 dBm, while on the Nexus 5 it's -51 dBm). And there's lots of little things too like finally Auto Brightness works well (it's always crappy in low light, flickering from one low setting to another, but medium and bright light handling is nearly invisible). With this phone in hand I should probably one day try out the 3G and 4G capabilities, but to be honest I'm still on 2G and don't care. I get my connectivity by wifi mostly.

Presently running 4.4.3 Cyanogenmod 11 with all of the above and thinking it's kinda cool.

Welcome to the New Android Lollipop's Permanent China Exclamations:



With Android 5 ("Lollipop"), Google has introduced the exclamation mark as a notification for internet connectivity. That is, if you have a wifi connection but no "internet connectivity" is detected through it, your wifi notification pie will acquire an exclamation mark. (And, as the rest of the world has yet to find out, the same happens for your data connection too.) That exclamation mark notifies you that for the sake of seamless internet, your phone will default to any available mobile data connection.

Now, apparently, "internet connectivity" is determined via Google servers of some sort. As a result, in China, both your wifi and your mobile data connection never lose that exclamation mark, no matter what strength of signal and connectivity. As captured above for instance, the wifi signal is opaque bold white, indicating full strength wifi signal (zero wifi would be dark grey). As also captured above, there is yet still internet connectivity inasmuch as I browsed to Raoul's before screen capping. A brief test indicates that this web surfing happens through the wifi connection even when my mobile data is on. I suppose this occurs (which is to say the defaulting to mobile data doesn't occur) because both signals are exclaimed.

Possibly custom roms will remove this "feature", but cyanogenmod 12 is still not officially available yet, so there it is. Enjoy!!

The other thing about Android in China is if you have the Google Android (as opposed to AOSP or whatever Chinese manufacturers are putting on their phones), it'll be using more battery than it should. The central element of Google functionality - Google Play services - will be keeping the phone awake trying, and failing, to check in with Google servers whenever there's a wifi or data connection open. To make this stop, I find I have to disable Google Play services, Google Services Framework, and Google Play. This, incidentally, plays havoc with various new parts of Android Lollipop - for instance, Hangouts doesn't work and with it goes SMS, Email has been replaced by Gmail, which doesn't work without Play services, and the Gallery app in Lollipop has been replaced by Photos, which is an extension of Google+, which requires Play services.... etc.

So you keep Google and plug your phone in more often, or get a custom rom, or use whatever they still offer on a Chinese phone.

Quote from: El Macho on September 25, 2013, 03:51:35 PM

The handy Chinese app we used is called 完美刷机. It is supposedly made by Baidu.

This thing?: "Perfect Brush"

At first glance it appears to be a Rom Manager clone.

I have used neither though so I don't know.

Bricked my damn Note 8 again trying to flash Paranoid Android. Using Perfect Brush to fix.

I got the iPhone 6 and like it, but I really miss being able to load up other app stores. The adblocker for android on the fdroid market is great.

It's a hard choice to make. The iOS products are so slick, reliable, and fit so well into my existing workflows. But android has this extensibility that's tempting. But each time I've gotten an android phone or tablet I just haven't been as satisfied with it as I am with my Apple gear.

after years of iOS only, i took the plunge and got myself a test android phone: Huawei Honor with dual SIM slots for a ridiculous 700rmb. Doggamn it it's fast and slick for the price... Honestly, it's getting harder to justify the cost of an iPhone if they keep coming up with this kind of android devices.

That said, after a week of use, the frustrations were significant. It's better than say a windows 8.1 phone but it still feels clucky and not streamlined in the way notifications work, the app management etc.. still, at 700rmb, i'm not gonna piss on the world. For reference, my last sony ericsson dumb flip phone cost me upwards of 2000 rmb