Does it? Pictures show silver/white sides. Maybe its a different version. I'm looking to take the jump from M7 to the Z2 but damn these babies are pricey! Would be cool if you could give some impressions of it after some use.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Android |OT4| I/O Silver
- Thread starter kinggroin
- Start date
- Status
Does it? Pictures show silver/white sides. Maybe its a different version. I'm looking to take the jump from M7 to the Z2 but damn these babies are pricey! Would be cool if you could give some impressions of it after some use.
I just looked it up
Daaaaaaang
Straight from the Chinese ghetto. You sure it ain't from North Korea?
bryanee
Member
lol yeah. To be fair its not all that bad. Screen is good and responsive. I don't have much of a basis for comparison as I've never had a smartphone and I barely uses mobiles any way so instead of paying stupid money or having a contract I got this for cheap.
Works well enough for me and I did look into it before hand and people seemed to like it and what genuine reviews I could find on YT were generally positive.
Some specs for people who have never seen it.
http://www.devicespecifications.com/en/model/c9bf2a98
I don't even know if any of that is good or bad for the £65 I paid for it.
shinshoryuken
Member
Oh, this is neat. This was posted in another thread earlier.
http://youtu.be/gx-8PGSpHRE
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=52230794
It's not flashable. Put it in system/media and save as "bootanimation.zip". Works and looks great on S4 and N7
http://youtu.be/gx-8PGSpHRE
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=52230794
It's not flashable. Put it in system/media and save as "bootanimation.zip". Works and looks great on S4 and N7
cuevas. PhD.
Member
Android
OT
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
That sucks. Seems like despite the Camera M8 is the way to go.
Maybe the LG will give us something, but that UI looks hideous.
The Faceless Master
Member
one thing you can try is to disable the messaging sound then use a 3rd party notification sound customization app to set up an incoming sound.
one more W for #TeamHardButt
I didn't realize the new OT was up. Thought Android GAF went silent for a day or two, there.
Really tempted to use this. Only reluctant because I fear for real disappointment with that game.
Really tempted to use this. Only reluctant because I fear for real disappointment with that game.
I have no interest in the game either, but it is great animation.
shinshoryuken
Member
Z2 is pretty sweet so far...I'm liking the new phone placebo snappiness..
Cubot is actually not that unknown
You can buy it here in Germany as well. They seem to make pretty solid Android phones.1) Turn off both outgoing and incoming notification sound for that messaging app
2) Install another messaging app from the Play store (e.g. Google Hangouts)
3) ...
4) Profit
Baroquemantic
Member
I assume for this to work on an S4, you need to be running an AOSP-based ROM?
How the hell did they stop working unless the screen broke?
Thats what I was wondering. Thats weird as hell.
BootlegSnackz
Member
shinshoryuken
Member
After few hours with the Z2, my verdict...
Screen- it's OK not the best but not bad. No wow factor. HTC, Samsung & LG screen seems better.
Sound- dual front speaker is OK too. Boomsound is better. It need more volumn.
Performance- snappy but a bit occasional lag.
Camera- compare to the Z1 it's almost the same with slight improvement in low light. I still say pureview 808 is still king of camera phone.
Battery- um only had it a few hours but seems good.
UI- same as Z1, I like it cause it's stock like with more function and less ugly.
Build- like I said earlier the built quality is a step down from the Z1. Doesn't feel like it will look that good after a few months if youre not careful. Also the black color has a purple tint side.
Z2 is Mediocre all around!!!
So far in the pass 3 years I had 3 x Samsung phones, 2 X HTC, 1 Nokia, 1 LG and 2 x Sony.. And a few apples.
2 phone that are my favorite is the galaxy s2 and the HTC One m7.
Screen- it's OK not the best but not bad. No wow factor. HTC, Samsung & LG screen seems better.
Sound- dual front speaker is OK too. Boomsound is better. It need more volumn.
Performance- snappy but a bit occasional lag.
Camera- compare to the Z1 it's almost the same with slight improvement in low light. I still say pureview 808 is still king of camera phone.
Battery- um only had it a few hours but seems good.
UI- same as Z1, I like it cause it's stock like with more function and less ugly.
Build- like I said earlier the built quality is a step down from the Z1. Doesn't feel like it will look that good after a few months if youre not careful. Also the black color has a purple tint side.
Z2 is Mediocre all around!!!
So far in the pass 3 years I had 3 x Samsung phones, 2 X HTC, 1 Nokia, 1 LG and 2 x Sony.. And a few apples.
2 phone that are my favorite is the galaxy s2 and the HTC One m7.
Baroquemantic
Member
Hopefully that's just a case and not the actual back of the phone. I hate glossy plastic.
Back buttons are still dumb as hell.
Yay software buttons.
Headset jack on the bottom, where it belongs.
Edit: ^^^^ Based on your impressions, the Z2 doesn't sound mediocre to me, just a bit underwhelming/nothing special. Then again, I haven't actually used one, so there's that.
There's a reason that they use plastic and it's not entirely because it's cheaper. It's also just lighter to hold compared to the material other companies use.
But there are better ways to use plastic than slippery gloss. A light device with a slippery surface is just asking to be accidentally dropped several times.
LG seemed to have gotten it right with the G Pro 2, so why can they not include the same style in the G3?
As I said in my post, I am not saying not to use plastic. I am saying that you should probably try to use a material that doesn't feel like shit. Slippery gloss is probably the dumbest material because it doesn't look good, its slippery, and gets obvious hairline scratches easily. Despite the textured back of the Galaxy S5, it still feels slimy. I don't know how they achieved that with what seems to be a textured matte material but they did.
Its not like decent feeling plastics are uncharted waters. Nokia has used it in their phones and so has Motorola. I can't remember but I reckon the last Oppo phone I touched used better feeling plastics than anything from LG or Samsung.
i think glossy plastic looks 'nice' in photos and in the shop, once you have bought the phone it is when you discover it is slippery.
I personally love the plastic back of the nexus 5, it is awesome, has good grip and like it way more than glossy plastic or glass back like z1or metalic like iphones. It is classy and practical at the same time and doesn't feel cheap at all.
I personally love the plastic back of the nexus 5, it is awesome, has good grip and like it way more than glossy plastic or glass back like z1or metalic like iphones. It is classy and practical at the same time and doesn't feel cheap at all.
glossy slippery backs make tons of sense to use combined with edge to edge/slim bezel front, makes the phone quite a bit more fragile and prone to shattering in drops, then you gotta pay half the price of the phone to replace that glass
It could be that only the white version is glossy, like with Nexus 5.
It could be that only the white version is glossy, like with Nexus 5.
The Faceless Master
Member
Samsung stopped last fall.
brotkasten
Member
I really can't believe how they messed with Dolphin's design. Is it 2005 again? Who the hell thought that would be a good idea? I sincerely hope they leave that crap out of the iPad version.
since dolphin fucked up, what is the browser to go for?
I know it's not really the place to put this, but if anyone uses Google Music on Chrome I'd very much appreciate it if you gave my (pre-alpha version) extension a go and told me what you think:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/musicbubbles/pjimkanhpmeohjmkdjefoodcmigdbcop
Persistent quick controls of sorts. Still in early stages.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/musicbubbles/pjimkanhpmeohjmkdjefoodcmigdbcop
Persistent quick controls of sorts. Still in early stages.
It should work with any ROM. You just need root access. Works on my S4 and Nexus 7 just fine. I'm running CM 11 on both.
The Wirecutter declares the S5 to be the best android phone on the market:
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-android-phone/
Obviously, the runner-up is the One M8.
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-android-phone/
Obviously, the runner-up is the One M8.
Who?
TheWirecutter - tech recommendation experts, review compilation site. Like Metacritic except updated less frequently. They have a smartphone section with recommendation topics like "Best Weather App". Their "Best Android smartphone" topic was just updated recently, crowning the recently released S5 over the One M8 and Nexus 5. (NB: Their "favorite smartphone" is a different topic altogether, currently recommends the iPhone 5s and, coincidentally, is usually updated in October).
They're a pretty reputable source that do extensive testings to try and find the best option within a category for the money. It's a pretty unbiased site because they're always good on pointing out exactly why they think it's the best, but also all the flaws that come with it. On top of that they always have "runner-ups" and options for people who are looking for something different.
Take that article for example. The "winner" is the S5, runner-up is the M8, the "contract free" is the Nexus 5 and the step down (aka budget) is the Moto G. I enjoy their articles because they actually do proper testing and also share exactly how and what they did.
Actually thewirecutter rarely does any testing themselves (and certainly not for their Android phones). Their usual m.o. is to read a range of reviews, compile the consensus, and then present recommendations.
Really now. So far all of the articles I've read by them have usually been testing conducted by the person who wrote it. I thought it was the same for all their stuff.
Well it's pretty obvious when comparing the The Best Android Phone, Spring 2014 to The iPhone is our favorite smartphone. The former article is always quoting experts' opinions while the latter has a lot of "I" and "Me".
I like theWirecutter, and swear by its recommendations for a lot of stuff, but I think its smartphone section is completely wrong headed.
Well that's really disheartening. I guess I'll have to be more cautious with their stuff from now on.
So i got it installed. it's the little headphones circle on the bottom right?
1. I started a radio station by clicking on it in my 'listen now' section. It's currently playing, and the 'next' and 'back' button don';t do anything. Hitting 'play' pauses and plays the stream as expected.
2. The interaction to get the 'move' and 'blacklist' buttons up is really tough. More of a design issue than i bug i think. i can get them to show by just hovering for a second, but if i don't move the cursor exactly to the new button it disappears.
3. what's the expected behavior with the widget? Is it supposed to show up in other browser tabs? On my desktop? Only on the play.google.com page? I always have the stock bottom buttons available, so if it's limited to the music tab I'm not sure what the benefits are.
Hope that helps.
E: I like the basic idea a lot, and would love to have quick controls either in my other tabs or even on my desktop. keep at it!
Post Edit: The widget shows up on Gaf, but not reddit or gmail...
I wouldn't be overly suspicious of apple bias. Nathan Edwards (the guy who wrote that write up) is a long time android user and formed Maximum PC editor. He has been tweeting about his personal experience with all the phones in his write up over the last couple of weeks. While he does do a lot of quoting, it isn't simply a round-up of others opinions.
Awesome. Thanks for the comments. It should technically show up on every single tab but in order to keep it as lightweight as possible I've done as much (mostly animtions and position stuff) as possible through CSS insetad of JS which in turn causes it to not show up if there's some funny CSS rules which interfere with it.
The concept is, as you pointed out, to have persistent one click controls on as many places as possible to avoid having to fumble to find the appropriate tab to have basic controls. It's still in the first version so I haven't even started getting data from the GM page, just blindly pushing commands, which is why I can't show song title or even play/pause status right now. I decided however to put on the Chrome store (albeit not published) to get a few testers, so any critique is greatly appreciated. That being said, Prev and Next should work, and for me it works on reddit. Debugging ahoy! Yay.
And I'm derailing. Sorry all but I figured you lot might be the biggest community on GAF which uses google music.
Its a beautiful device right?
Rodney McKay
Member
In-hand, I find that glossy plastic is actually very gripable and not slippery at all.
Before I got a case for my iPad Mini I hated trying to hold it because of its slick aluminum back. I had to put my finger tips on the glossy Apple logo to get any kind of grip on the thing.
I don't love how they look like fingerprint magnets (depending on the color), and I do prefer the kind of material that Nokia uses for their Windows phones, but I don't mind glossy plastic much on my phones.
- Status