Forum Pulse: What Mobile Phone & OS Do You Use

[cleverwise]

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The idea behind the "Forum Pulse" series is to get a better understanding of those that make up this community.
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Topic: What mobile phone and OS do you use?


Lead Off:

I am using a Google Nexus 4 running Android 4.3 unlocked and rooted.

[QuasarDonkey]

They used to say you could tell a lot about a man by the shoes he wears. I guess this is a more modern analog.

Nokia 1600 (Ultrabasic), screen slightly cracked.


Does the job

[Flocke]

I keep getting tortured by the samsung bada smartphone I bought one and a half years ago.
It always promts me with a popup whether to access the internet while I don't want it to.
I hate it.

[Tethys]

I had an HTC One X that broke, piece of junk too, camera sucked on it. Only good thing was the battery life, which is about the same as the one I downgraded to, HTC Vivid. Runs 4.0.3 ICS with sweeter home 2 home replacement, with my LCARS theme (TethysLCARS). Unrooted as I cant find a way to root without unlocking the bootloader, and wiping the data.

[cleverwise]

@QuasarDonkey, if it works for you that is all that matters.

@Flocke, that's unfortunate. I hope you can get something different sooner rather than later.

@Tethys, that's unfortunate about the previous HTC. They seem to have an overall solid reputation. I personally haven't found a way to root an Android device without unlocking the bootloader first either. That does wipe the phone so obviously one wants to do this ASAP.

What is cool about Google's Nexus line is unlocking and rooting their devices doesn't void the warranty like some manufacturers. In fact they encourage people to play with the Nexus devices.

[Dewbacca]

Damn thing is a mini computer... I like it better than my iPhone so far. Android 4 as far as I can tell.

[cleverwise]

Samsung makes some nice phones. If you go to "Apps" => "Settings" => "About Phone" the Android version should be listed on that page (pretty sure Samsung does it that way). It should be Android 4.x either ICS or JB. I definitely prefer Android over iPhone.

[MrGwangGwang]

This is the one I use...

[Tethys]

LOL @ ^

But really, I dont like Samsung phones. The battery seems to discharge even with the charger connected (using GPS and wifi at least). Dissimilarly, on my HTC i can run everything with the screen on full illumination and I can get a good 6-8 hours of normal use without connecting to a charger, but just normal screen on/off, checking messages, surfing internet, using the GPS on deliveries. But, I usually have GPS off and screen on half/auto illumination, and that alone nearly DOUBLES the battery life with the same usage at 12-15 hours (depending on if I need to activate the GPS or not)

I LOVE the HTC line of phones. But the One X was pure rectal excrement. No removable battery, no SD card expansion slot, 32 GB storage but still... oh and my Samsung crap does not have SD capacity either, AND uses the MTP file transfer protocol, so I lost all of my downloaded content (mostly unclassy pictures, do not judge me ) all because I could not directly connect to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus internal storage. Samsung garbage! One X garbage! SD card phones only forever!

[Dr_Breen]

Galaxy S4 Mini. Android 4.2.2
rooted

[cleverwise]

@MrGwangGwang, damn man. You must be really wealthy to afford that kind of tech! ;-)

@Tethys, Samsung's do have their disadvantages for sure. One of the biggest is the nonstandard storage. If the SD card becomes corrupt you can't use standard repair tools. I have had to give the bad news to people who have come to me for help. Now you can reformat the SD card to use a standardize filesystem, which their phones and tablets can read and use, but by default Samsung's sticks with their own. This is also true of their TVs.

For me I have my phone backup pictures to my G+ private folder automatically. The phone uploads as soon as it connects to Wifi, so as not to use up mobile data. Yes I am aware Google then has my pictures and I expressed on a different thread my privacy concerns. Unfortunately it is just to convenient to have my pictures automatically backed up when the Nexus 4 is able to login to any Wifi. It does this over SSL of course. ;-) I also make backups of the phone, from time-to-time.

I run Qualcomm's Battery Manager which does extend my battery life. Unfortunately more and more phones are coming with built in batteries because this allows designers to reduced the thickness by about 2mm. When phones are under 10mm that is huge savings. I personally keep my GPS off too but I like to use live wallpapers and often have 1 GB of RAM in usage with things like a firewall, A/V and such. Still I get a good six to eight hours under heavily usage and if I don't do a lot it can go 36 to 48 hours without needing any recharge.

[Flocke]

well, with my usual usage my phone lasts about a week or two before I need to recharge, that's the one fine thing on it

[anjel]

Samsung Galaxy SIII, JellyBean 4.1.2 Stock customized, rooted, and a crazy tester for every rom there´s around in xda, for my mobile of course

[cleverwise]

@Flocke, I understand. Non smartphones last much longer. That is one downside to powerful phones they are energy hogs; gives and takes for everything.

@Anjel, sounds good. XDA does rock! A lot of awesome droid hacks and patches with a very lively community.