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  • Phones... Windows 8-based vs. Galaxy S3 / S3 mini

    So, I have a need to access Gmail and Facebook on the move, and also be generally in the 21st century.

    I had a Symbian S60-based Nokia in Australia, and I loved having GPS/sat-nav, Facebook, Gmail and Opera browser on the move, whilst also having a keypad. It would appear that it's almost impossible to get such functionality without going full smartphone/touchscreen, so now I'm a bit out of my depth.

    Anyone using Windows 8 or Android devices? I would like a well-featured Facebook (my S60 device struggled with sharing photos that I've saved etc) and in-line text messages/conversation view.

    Software quirks would annoy me (I've read some people having issues with ring volume and discreet settings for at work failing to be discreet).

    Thanks for anything you can offer
    Meet Jasmine.
    flickr.com/photos/pace3000

  • #2
    Well, there is (dare I say it), the BB Q10 with keyboard coming soon.
    Join MURCs Distributed Computing effort for Rosetta@Home and help fight Alzheimers, Cancer, Mad Cow disease and rising oil prices.
    [...]the pervading principle and abiding test of good breeding is the requirement of a substantial and patent waste of time. - Veblen

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    • #3
      My 'backup phone' is a Symbian S60v5 based Sony Ericsson (Vivaz), and my primary phone is a HTC Sensation XE with android 4 and the HTC stuff on top that I got from work.

      My experience? I really hate the HTC with Android 4. While the build quality is superior to my Sony Ericsson, the OS is just way less usable for 'feature phone' stuff like making calls, adding calendar entries, saving contacts, etc. Symbian is vastly superior in this regard...
      I yet have to install a vanilla android install onto the phone, so I don't know to what degree my experience is caused by the HTC sense skin on top of Android.

      I'm also very un-impressed by Android apps in the Google Play Store. Most of them demand that you surrender far more privacy than absolutely necessary to install and use them, and I've read that a large amount of them are spyware/adware. Apple has a much tighter grip on what they offer through their App store.

      unrelated to the OS, I hate having to use touch screens with my fingers (maybe my skin is naturally just rather oily?). Typing text on a physical numpad with T9 also works MUCH faster for me than using a touch screen. I wish there'd be slider phones that combine a physical numpad with a large touchscreen (for browsing the web) and a stylus that can be stored into the phone.

      I'd love to try out Windows Phone 8 or an apple iPhone, so see how they stack up. Frankly, I think that a lot of the stuff about modern smartphones is mostly hype, and that you're not off badly with a phone running a recent version of Symbian.
      Last edited by dZeus; 22 March 2013, 01:51.

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      • #4
        I have the same feeling about Symbian: it was really a usable, advanced system (I had a Nokia running S60v2). Amazing how Nokia managed to screw that up. After that I had a Windows Mobile (not Windows Phone), and that was just a usability nightmare. Powerful phone, but nothing was easy.

        Now, I have 2 Android phones, main one unfortunately stuck on Android 2.3 as my operator will not upgrade, but I don't think it is that bad as dZeus said (but still indeed more complicated to turn a recently received call into a contact, or other trivial phone things). Problem is that the feeling of the OS is not really something you can get in a shop...
        pixar
        Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

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        • #5
          Now I am terribly biased (towards blackberry) but I think I can honestly say that:
          - Windows Mobile sucked so hard, you'd whish it was a.... anywaym that was terribly and I only had to endure for a year luckilly.
          - Android? Both on the phone as on the tablet, it just does not feel right. It's hard, unintuitive and, IMHO, messy.
          - iPad, iPhone, same for me.

          My blackberries on the other hand... Phone is easy and tablet is very easy, intuitive to me and brilliant with the bezel gestures.
          Join MURCs Distributed Computing effort for Rosetta@Home and help fight Alzheimers, Cancer, Mad Cow disease and rising oil prices.
          [...]the pervading principle and abiding test of good breeding is the requirement of a substantial and patent waste of time. - Veblen

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          • #6
            Originally posted by dZeus View Post
            My experience? I really hate the HTC with Android 4. While the build quality is superior to my Sony Ericsson, the OS is just way less usable for 'feature phone' stuff like making calls, adding calendar entries, saving contacts, etc. Symbian is vastly superior in this regard...
            I yet have to install a vanilla android install onto the phone, so I don't know to what degree my experience is caused by the HTC sense skin on top of Android.

            I'm also very un-impressed by Android apps in the Google Play Store. Most of them demand that you surrender far more privacy than absolutely necessary to install and use them, and I've read that a large amount of them are spyware/adware. Apple has a much tighter grip on what they offer through their App store.

            unrelated to the OS, I hate having to use touch screens with my fingers (maybe my skin is naturally just rather oily?). Typing text on a physical numpad with T9 also works MUCH faster for me than using a touch screen. I wish there'd be slider phones that combine a physical numpad with a large touchscreen (for browsing the web) and a stylus that can be stored into the phone.

            I'd love to try out Windows Phone 8 or an apple iPhone, so see how they stack up. Frankly, I think that a lot of the stuff about modern smartphones is mostly hype, and that you're not off badly with a phone running a recent version of Symbian.
            Anyone looking for "just a phone" should definitely stay away from Android, WP8, and iOS devices. They are very much focused experiences that revolve around the Internet (note I'm not saying "the Web"). I stayed away from them for awhile (claymonkey can vouch for my hesitations), feeling much like you, that there was more hype than substance. That said, I rarely make phone calls these days, so a "smartphone" fits with what I want in a pocket computing device.

            As far as a comparison between those three mobile operating systems, there's far more that they have in common than not. The biggest difference is going to be the GUI and even there only WP8 feels like a departure from the other two. There's just as much relative adware/spyware in the Apple iTunes Store as there is in the Google Play Store, Apple just seems to be better at removing it. The Play Store is far better about letting you know what permissions an app needs to your device, though iOS is sometimes better at letting you know when an app is using features of the device (such as location). I haven't used the WP8 store at all, so can't really comment there.

            There used to be a plethora of physical keyboard endowed Android devices, but the trend towards freakishly large screens and iPhone-profile envy has pushed those into near extinction. Personally, I like using the Swype virtual keyboard over any of the T9 virtual keyboards.
            “And, remember: there's no 'I' in 'irony'” ~ Merlin Mann

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Umfriend View Post
              Now I am terribly biased (towards blackberry) but I think I can honestly say that:
              - Windows Mobile sucked so hard, you'd whish it was a.... anywaym that was terribly and I only had to endure for a year luckilly.
              - Android? Both on the phone as on the tablet, it just does not feel right. It's hard, unintuitive and, IMHO, messy.
              - iPad, iPhone, same for me.

              My blackberries on the other hand... Phone is easy and tablet is very easy, intuitive to me and brilliant with the bezel gestures.

              do yourself a favour and pre-evaluate the BB before you commit.
              I'll preface this by saying that I live in a BB centric community- they started up here and do an extreme amount of work/charity for the community.
              My better half is a director for a multinational corporation in the area, and they switched away from BB, mostly due to issues with the new BB10 and gmail. They are currently using a galaxy s3, based on the companies IT department evaluations.
              Yeah, well I'm gonna build my own lunar space lander! With blackjack aaaaannd Hookers! Actually, forget the space lander, and the blackjack. Ahhhh forget the whole thing!

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              • #8
                I have a GSII year and a half now. Love it! GSIII a smidge better than mine, a more refined layout (buttons, thickness, etc). Have nearly 300 apps and a couple of games to which I actually deleted two of the games this morning.

                Of those apps I have less than $30 invested in a few, Torque, AudioTool and Pykll3 Radar. To get close to the apps on iOS would be well over $600! Lots of security holes due to the carriers not updating/patching bugs and security issues. None the less, mine is rooted and have less issue than standard Samsung/Carrier android OS running on same devices (like the GSIII).

                GSIV is better, but wouldn't be enough for me to boot the phone I have now for something newer or better, just not enough difference.

                Also nice is that I still have my old Android Hero phone (rooted) and a new Samsung tablet (not rooted.... yet All apps work on all devices (minus one, Torque) without spending a penny more. Another ++

                I haven't seen a BB in years now, OH wait, yes I have! Friend gave one to a 2 year old to play with, so I see that every few days laying on the floor here or under the table there or in her baby stroller. Now that Zoe can talk I'll ask her what she thinks of it. She's 4 now

                ^ they both have android phones, Galaxy Nexus and a GSIII.

                Also note that it wasn't until the GSII came out that I would recommend any "smartphone" to a person whom needed it for a "phone"

                Have had WM6 device, a cluge to deal with and was tossed years ago.


                For those of us in the US, have you seen the NetZero commercial promoting their 4g hotspot device? Ever go into a internet cafe, Starbucks etc and it's slower than dirt, seeing that I am rooted, installed a few apps that help with this, like WiFiKill. Log on to said access point and can kick any other device/all other devices offline an get all the bandwidth to myself! :snickers: Now if I had an app that would turn my phone into a cell jammer I'd be in heaven. Too many A**holes lacking any form of etiquette.
                "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." -- Dr. Seuss

                "Always do good. It will gratify some and astonish the rest." ~Mark Twain

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                • #9
                  I still have Nokia E52 and as a phone it rocks. I also use mail for Exchange (when my phone was stolen I only synced contacts to new phone), maps, sportstracker (while walking/running), Skype (to talk in bed) and Opera to read news while waiting in lines and check Facebook.

                  For anything more demanding I whip out a laptop, fire up Joiku Hotspot and use that.

                  I presently have 999MB, 999 minutes and 999 SMS in my €19,90 plan. I can either get a new phone or a discount - this time it was €60 every couple of years. IMO it's far better to go for discount and buy used phone with receipt, warranty as paying 60-100 euros for 2-3 months with a phone without scratches.

                  Last time I was playing with a Windows phone, trying to put a self signed CA certificate on it. I was unable to make it behave like mass storage which S60 does by default. I had to put certificate on FTP and even then I was unable to save it and open it. On S60 it's connect via USB, copy file, open file in file manager, done.

                  I have a habit of stopping for a coffee alone and when I do that I put the laptop on the desk (almost all cafes here free wifi) and log in to chat apps to see if any of my friends I talk with regularly are online. I also open facebook to get a glance how people I care about are doing. I'd reply few work emails, perhaps check online banking (certificates stored on USB dongle) and pay something. After that I'd let the laptop sit in the middle of the table with screen upright and glance over it on passers by, one hand resting on the keyboard, index on the trackpoint.

                  The biggest city here is small and if you sit in a cafe for couple of hours, someone you know will walk by or an ex president might be seen near the government building and then driving away alone in his Golf.

                  With tablet I'd be unable to see 2-3 chat apps (I never was able to convince all my friends to move to same chat app) + facebook + news site browser window at the same time and the tablet would rest on the table, forcing me to glance down, thus missing passers by. Also for me it's common to have 2-3 chat windows in different foreign languages and that occasionally requires a dictionary. Alt+Tab, copy paste, search is still superior with keyboard + trackpoint.

                  I don't know why so few people use laptops in cafes. My guess is that those who would use them for web and social sites never really could afford or justify real light, 14" and smaller laptops with 3h+ battery life and instead got 3kg+ 15.4 1280x720 shiny screen laptops with meagre half an hour battery. Such laptops are totally unsuitable for sitting in a cafe:
                  - they're too big to fit on table with drinks, ashtray, keys, phone
                  - they're too heavy and unwieldy to carry around
                  - they have too short battery life for whole day on the go
                  - the shiny screen is unsuitable for outdoors
                  Last edited by UtwigMU; 23 April 2013, 15:06.

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