5 ms·

I'm betting it's just that new Verizon phone with the useless second LCD. I spoke with someone months ago at Google who said they were working on a "Nexus Two"

by pkulak 16y ago

I'm betting it's just that new Verizon phone with the useless second LCD. I spoke with someone months ago at Google who said they were working on a "Nexus Two" device, but he could have been referring to the G2 for all I know. Here's what I've been waiting for in an Android phone since they started pumping them out: thin, no keyboard, responsive touchscreen, iPhone4-quality camera, accurate GPS and stock Android or easily rootable. Pretty much, I don't want any compromises, and no one seems to want to do it. Every single model skimps somewhere. If it's got a nice camera, the GPS doesn't work. Otherwise, the camera is crap or it's 3/4 of an inch thick with a keyboard I won't use. The Nexus One is so close, but the touchscreen sucks and the camera is beyond terrible.

billybob 16y ago
+1 for stock Android. I sure as heck don't want carrier modifications. Note to carriers: your job is radio frequencies and call routing. That's all I want you for. You are not a software company. It sucks to be a commodity, but it sucks more to be an anchor on an airplane, which is what you are for the quality of your phones. Give them a connection and free reign.
- IgorPartola 16y ago
  The question is how do you make them listen?
- jordanroher 16y ago
  I was under the impression that the carriers and manufacturers modified their phones so they could differentiate themselves. There's the revenue opportunities, sure, but they have to do something to stand out. Now here's the crazy part: no one is selling a device with stock Android. If your phone was straight Android 2.2, it wouldn't look like any other phone on the market. The minute Motorola or LG realize this, they get 100% of the nerd phone market.
  - wmf 16y ago
    The G2 is pretty stock.
    - pkulak 16y ago
      Yeah, but totally locked down. It does look like a great phone, though.
  - parbo 16y ago
    There is no need for differentiation when serving up bits and bytes. There is a need for competition on quality of service, customer support and pricing. EDIT: Clarification, I'm referring to the carriers. The manufacturers need differentiation, but would be better served doing so through hardware.
  - eljaco 16y ago
    It's usually not up to Motorola or LG. It's the carriers that add (or ask to add) these additional/non-stock features. I'm curious what the state of Android is outside of the US - do carriers in other countries add the likes of V-Cast or a NASCAR app?
    - dreaming 16y ago
      In Australia, the biggest carrier Telstra generally adds a tonne of crapware, and several people I know with htc desires have links to various telstra features that are broken on the default firmware. I seem to recall the reason telstra didnt get into the iphone game until significantly after the other carriers was because of the iphone impeding sales of telstra 'services'. We also have the more budget oriented virgin mobile who have generally little to no customization depending on the phone.
- minalecs 16y ago
  just root and put vanilla android on yourself. I don't see what issue is.
  - peregrine 16y ago
    Not possible on all phones... the g2 for instance is unrootable.
    - slmichalk 16y ago
      ...for now.
  - CrazedGeek 16y ago
    Aside from (A) rooting never being supported, (B) some phones not having a hacking community around them, and (C) the lack of a vanilla ROM even for those that do have hacking communities, it's just a hassle.
  - runjake 16y ago
    There aren't more than a couple phones that have a vanilla Android ROM floating around for them. Cyanogenmod and similar are far from vanilla AOSP.
Tichy 16y ago
"iPhone4-quality camera" The iPhone 4 hasn't been around that long. My guess is you will always find something that could be better and hence you'll never buy an Android phone.
- pkulak 16y ago
  I've got a Nexus One. And is it too much to ask that at least one Android device be up-to-date technologically? I'm not asking for things now that will show up in the future. I want the things now that are available now.
  - Tichy 16y ago
    No device is ever up-to-date, as technology progresses all the time.
Qz 16y ago
So far the closest I've found is HTC Droid Incredible: thin, no keyboard, responsive touchscreen, quality camera (don't have an iPhone 4 so can't compare), accurate GPS (saved my ass in a ghetto) and easily rootable (maybe? I've heard its not hard, but haven't felt the need to).
- candeira 16y ago
  The Samsung Galaxy S would be exactly that phone if it weren't for the bugs that make it lag badly. Root it and install Froyo, though, and it is a beauty. I don't know how true the rumours of a Samsung-made Nexus are, but I wouldn't be surprised given the quality of the Galaxy's hardware.
  - nl 16y ago
    Look for "Ryan's One Click lag fix" in the market, run it and you are done. With that it's been fine for me - I still haven't bothered to install Froyo.
    - flanger 16y ago
      Too bad the GPS is still worthless.
      - nl 16y ago
        There's a fix for that too: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=728894 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=728894 (TL;DR: Use the google service instead of whatever they replaced it with. Who could have guessed..)
    - candeira 16y ago
      Yes, I did that, and it fixed the lag. Froyo is even better.
blub 16y ago
The iPhone4 camera oversaturates and has problems with the white balance. The N8 camera is the leader of the pack right now.
cma 16y ago
Droid Incredible, but you have to root it. Does 720p with the froyo update, and has the same touch sensor chip as the EVO, etc. (not the crappy one on the original Droid)
nl 16y ago
Samsung Galaxy S. It's thinner than an iPhone 3GS, about the same as an iPhone4 No keyboard, touchscreen is the best I've used. The camera is good. Only downside is it doesn't have a flash - but the low light mode is surprisingly good. The GPS is accurate (some people have had to change some settings to get quicker startup for it though) It's not stock Android, but it's easily rootable (as in "install an app from the market and press one button)
- tuxychandru 16y ago
  My biggest gripe with Galaxy S (at least the I9000) is that it doesn't do OTA firmware upgrade. It also needs Samsung Kies which runs only on Windows and on top of it fails to upgrade the firmware with a "Failed to convert to upgrade mode" message. Official firmware upgrade is just too much of hassle on this phone.
  - trezor 16y ago
    It was indeed a horrible upgrade experience and it really blows my mind how Samsung can create such a great phone and so horrible Windows-software. If you want to give it another try, I covered how I got it working in this thread over at reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/dscb6/samsung_galaxy_s_gets_android_22_update_finally/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/dscb6/samsung_galax... Basically: Downgrade to a specific version of Kies not containing the buggy FW updater. Upgrade your phone. The upgrade to 2.2 is definitely worth it.
- pkulak 16y ago
  I had a Captivate and the GPS was useless.

by pkulak 16y ago

billybob 16y ago

+1 for stock Android. I sure as heck don't want carrier modifications. Note to carriers: your job is radio frequencies and call routing. That's all I want you for. You are not a software company. It sucks to be a commodity, but it sucks more to be an anchor on an airplane, which is what you are for the quality of your phones. Give them a connection and free reign.

IgorPartola 16y ago
The question is how do you make them listen?
jordanroher 16y ago
I was under the impression that the carriers and manufacturers modified their phones so they could differentiate themselves. There's the revenue opportunities, sure, but they have to do something to stand out. Now here's the crazy part: no one is selling a device with stock Android. If your phone was straight Android 2.2, it wouldn't look like any other phone on the market. The minute Motorola or LG realize this, they get 100% of the nerd phone market.
- wmf 16y ago
  The G2 is pretty stock.
  - pkulak 16y ago
    Yeah, but totally locked down. It does look like a great phone, though.
- parbo 16y ago
  There is no need for differentiation when serving up bits and bytes. There is a need for competition on quality of service, customer support and pricing. EDIT: Clarification, I'm referring to the carriers. The manufacturers need differentiation, but would be better served doing so through hardware.
- eljaco 16y ago
  It's usually not up to Motorola or LG. It's the carriers that add (or ask to add) these additional/non-stock features. I'm curious what the state of Android is outside of the US - do carriers in other countries add the likes of V-Cast or a NASCAR app?
  - dreaming 16y ago
    In Australia, the biggest carrier Telstra generally adds a tonne of crapware, and several people I know with htc desires have links to various telstra features that are broken on the default firmware. I seem to recall the reason telstra didnt get into the iphone game until significantly after the other carriers was because of the iphone impeding sales of telstra 'services'. We also have the more budget oriented virgin mobile who have generally little to no customization depending on the phone.
minalecs 16y ago
just root and put vanilla android on yourself. I don't see what issue is.
- peregrine 16y ago
  Not possible on all phones... the g2 for instance is unrootable.
  - slmichalk 16y ago
    ...for now.
- CrazedGeek 16y ago
  Aside from (A) rooting never being supported, (B) some phones not having a hacking community around them, and (C) the lack of a vanilla ROM even for those that do have hacking communities, it's just a hassle.
- runjake 16y ago
  There aren't more than a couple phones that have a vanilla Android ROM floating around for them. Cyanogenmod and similar are far from vanilla AOSP.

Tichy 16y ago

"iPhone4-quality camera" The iPhone 4 hasn't been around that long. My guess is you will always find something that could be better and hence you'll never buy an Android phone.

pkulak 16y ago
I've got a Nexus One. And is it too much to ask that at least one Android device be up-to-date technologically? I'm not asking for things now that will show up in the future. I want the things now that are available now.
- Tichy 16y ago
  No device is ever up-to-date, as technology progresses all the time.

Qz 16y ago

So far the closest I've found is HTC Droid Incredible: thin, no keyboard, responsive touchscreen, quality camera (don't have an iPhone 4 so can't compare), accurate GPS (saved my ass in a ghetto) and easily rootable (maybe? I've heard its not hard, but haven't felt the need to).

candeira 16y ago
The Samsung Galaxy S would be exactly that phone if it weren't for the bugs that make it lag badly. Root it and install Froyo, though, and it is a beauty. I don't know how true the rumours of a Samsung-made Nexus are, but I wouldn't be surprised given the quality of the Galaxy's hardware.
- nl 16y ago
  Look for "Ryan's One Click lag fix" in the market, run it and you are done. With that it's been fine for me - I still haven't bothered to install Froyo.
  - flanger 16y ago
    Too bad the GPS is still worthless.
    - nl 16y ago
      There's a fix for that too: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=728894 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=728894 (TL;DR: Use the google service instead of whatever they replaced it with. Who could have guessed..)
  - candeira 16y ago
    Yes, I did that, and it fixed the lag. Froyo is even better.

blub 16y ago

The iPhone4 camera oversaturates and has problems with the white balance. The N8 camera is the leader of the pack right now.

cma 16y ago

Droid Incredible, but you have to root it. Does 720p with the froyo update, and has the same touch sensor chip as the EVO, etc. (not the crappy one on the original Droid)

nl 16y ago

Samsung Galaxy S. It's thinner than an iPhone 3GS, about the same as an iPhone4 No keyboard, touchscreen is the best I've used. The camera is good. Only downside is it doesn't have a flash - but the low light mode is surprisingly good. The GPS is accurate (some people have had to change some settings to get quicker startup for it though) It's not stock Android, but it's easily rootable (as in "install an app from the market and press one button)

tuxychandru 16y ago
My biggest gripe with Galaxy S (at least the I9000) is that it doesn't do OTA firmware upgrade. It also needs Samsung Kies which runs only on Windows and on top of it fails to upgrade the firmware with a "Failed to convert to upgrade mode" message. Official firmware upgrade is just too much of hassle on this phone.
- trezor 16y ago
  It was indeed a horrible upgrade experience and it really blows my mind how Samsung can create such a great phone and so horrible Windows-software. If you want to give it another try, I covered how I got it working in this thread over at reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/dscb6/samsung_galaxy_s_gets_android_22_update_finally/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/dscb6/samsung_galax... Basically: Downgrade to a specific version of Kies not containing the buggy FW updater. Upgrade your phone. The upgrade to 2.2 is definitely worth it.
pkulak 16y ago
I had a Captivate and the GPS was useless.