• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

the G2 and the vibrant

HadouGhost

Android Expert
Feb 14, 2010
879
69
36
So im looking at the G2 and i love how nice HTC phones are. I have a few questions on it as i may want to get it aswell and swap between phones and root the hell out of one of these phones so i have a backup. Also i might give the g2 to my wife, i dont know.

Anyway I have alot of questions on it and i know some things have been covered but im still ignorant to alot of stuff.

Lets start with cpu, it may be 800mhz but its a 2nd gen snapdragon, so is it technically faster than the hummingbird, or is it slower by 200mhz but can process more stuff at the same time? Apparently its GPU is faster than the sgx 540 (thank you sammyV for the post in the other thread)

Now the screen is smaller but is it gorilla glass? what kind of tech is the screen using? amled? regular LCD?

And answers and other info is appreciated. I owned the original HTC G1 since day one and im really feeling the need to get the G2 to show and fufill my..faithfulness

also, what of the camera? HD recording?
 
Snapdragon is not as fast as the Hummingbird.

Im not a two phone guy. I pick one and use that one. I chose mine because of what it had in it even though it was made by Samsung. That is the only drawback since they are slow as sh*t to get updates out. I wont make that mistake again but the Hummingbird chip is better than the Qualcomm SD and i doubt it is clocked all the way to 800 anyways.

I dont really do the faithfulness thing. I buy a phone for features, speed and what it can do down the road. I try to keep mine close to two years anyways if possible.

I had an iPhone the last two years and i disliked the G1. I didnt like it for a lot of reasons. This is my first Android phone and i think its great but im not loyal to SS either but i do prefer a virtual keyboard.

Pretty sure you can find all that info easily by Googling it?
 
Upvote 0
So im looking at the G2 and i love how nice HTC phones are. I have a few questions on it as i may want to get it aswell and swap between phones and root the hell out of one of these phones so i have a backup. Also i might give the g2 to my wife, i dont know.

Anyway I have alot of questions on it and i know some things have been covered but im still ignorant to alot of stuff.

Lets start with cpu, it may be 800mhz but its a 2nd gen snapdragon, so is it technically faster than the hummingbird, or is it slower by 200mhz but can process more stuff at the same time? Apparently its GPU is faster than the sgx 540 (thank you sammyV for the post in the other thread)

Now the screen is smaller but is it gorilla glass? what kind of tech is the screen using? amled? regular LCD?

And answers and other info is appreciated. I owned the original HTC G1 since day one and im really feeling the need to get the G2 to show and fufill my..faithfulness

also, what of the camera? HD recording?

You should check out comparison videos between the two devices and see which is actually faster. And I don't mean videos showing quadrant scores. I mean actual real world usage

From what I've read, no htc device up to now has employed gorilla glass
 
Upvote 0
I recently switched from Sprint (had a lemon EVO) to T-mobile. I did initially switch to a G2 but returned that for the Vibrant. Some thoughts:

Screen. The G2 screen is just too small for me. Its probably the main reason I returned it. The Vibrant screen is bigger and just more, well, vibrant. AMOLED tech is really neat and it shows on this phone.

Weight. The G2 is like having a brick in your pocket. The Vibrant weighs next to nothing. I believe its 110 grams vs 180 grams. That extra 70 grams makes a difference. Its odd that this matters, but it does. When I hold the G2 I feel like I have a phone from 1995 and when I hold the Vibrant its like this ultra-light sci-fi device that should be heavier than it looks, but is in fact lighter.

Performance. I still feel the Vibrant is faster. Lots faster. Perhaps I am not suffering from the lag issue others are.

Keyboard. I thought I could use the G2 hardware keyboard, but it was more of a hassle than anything else and added girth and weight to the phone. The current Android virtual keyboards are almost as good as a hardware keyboard. I haven't done much "Swyping" but its a nice feature. I tend to type pretty quickly the normal way.

HSDPA. The G2 does plus and the Vibrant doesn't. Fine, but the Vibrant gets 2-5mbps is Chicago, which is what my old EVO got using 4G! That's a lot of bandwidth for a mobile phone. I think anything past 5 isn't really needed at this time so HSDPA+ can wait. Reception seems about the same too.

Camera. Dunno, I haven't played much with it. I do find that cell phones with flash LEDs are borderline useless. They tend to go off under low light conditions and just overexpose the picture. On my previous phones I always disabled the flash LED.

Interface. The Samsung Android tweaks are really, really nice. I much prefer them over the largely unattractive stock Android the G2 is running. It would be great to see these changes brought into Android proper. I think it blows away even SenseUI.

I think the choice is pretty clear, at least for me, the Vibrant is the superior phone, and by a lot.
 
Upvote 0
Lets start with cpu, it may be 800mhz but its a 2nd gen snapdragon, so is it technically faster than the hummingbird, or is it slower by 200mhz but can process more stuff at the same time? Apparently its GPU is faster than the sgx 540 (thank you sammyV for the post in the other thread)

?

Hey ghost...keep in mind that mhz in my opinion don't matter, they are somewhat irrelevant.

I don't know how old you are, but think back about 15 yrs.... the i486 DX4 100mhz was killed by a pentium running at 60mhz. 40mhz slower technically, but the Pentium was significantly faster.

The 2nd generation snapdragons do appear to be faster than hummingbird, even when you compare 800mhz 2nd gen snapdragons to the hummingbird. Also fingers are strongly pointing to poor performance gains with 2.2 on hummingbird.

I'm also looking for a new phone already, it will most likely be a second generation snapdragon. It also appears Google is more concerned with optimizing Android to run on snapdragons.

So to answer your question, no the 200 difference means nothing. It has been shown time after time with computer CPU's, the mhz can be meaningless when you consider exactly how the cpu operates.

Think about it this way, lets say you are in a ferarri and i'm in a honda civic. We are both going from point A to point B, but I have a straight path and you have a curvy windy road. Who will get there first? I will, I go straight from A to B, you have to take the windy road and jump through loops and hurdles.

Good luck, and think about waiting for the MyTouch HD, I like the specs on that phone.
 
Upvote 0
Could you link my touch HD plz?


Really thinking of, as much as i love it, returning the Vibrant. something about the G2 REALLY appeals to me despite the smaller non samoled screen and slightly slower GPU

im past 30 days but il lsee what i can do.

I thought the G2 GPU was faster? According to the androidandme article.

anyway

I dunno the screen is the only thing keeping me with vibrant also, I cant imagine a world with anything less than a 4 inch screen. If Samsung would just prove to me that Froyo will provide the performance boost, than I'll continue loving this phone.

People are thinking i'm hating on the phone, but I just want samsung to hear our voices, I want them to release froyo soon, and on top of that, release froyo with an optimized JIT compiler so that galaxy s owners can see the 2-5x cpu boost promised in 2.2. I'm not hating, I want my phone to be the best, my name is SamsungVibrant after all.

the mytouch hd is second generation snapdragon at 1ghz MSM8255
Front Facing Camera FFC that works on wifi or T-Mobiles network!
hspa+
3.8 WVGA screen
no physical keyboard, its virtual
5megapixel camera with flash
it also has led indicators
T-Mobile TV!
Comes with an 8gb microsd, expandable to 32...I think the internal is only 4gb....so Vibrant wins this one.
FLAWLESS GPS...I don't know for certain, but having owned HTC phones, I can almost guarantee 12 out of 12 sats with 6.6 foot accuracy almost always.
I think it might also have an fm tuner built in.

I still prefer the vibrant because of the larger screen and the enormous memory, but I DEMAND FROYO 2.2 JIT compiler to be used at its full potential. Otherwise the galaxy S is a dead phone on anything beyond 2.1

By the way, guess what, Honeycomb is around the holiday season, then after that, rumor has it Ice Cream will be out.
Android 'Ice Cream' the sweet toothed followup to Honeycomb? -- Engadget
 
Upvote 0
I thought the G2 GPU was faster? According to the androidandme article.

anyway

I dunno the screen is the only thing keeping me with vibrant also, I cant imagine a world with anything less than a 4 inch screen. If Samsung would just prove to me that Froyo will provide the performance boost, than I'll continue loving this phone.

People are thinking i'm hating on the phone, but I just want samsung to hear our voices, I want them to release froyo soon, and on top of that, release froyo with an optimized JIT compiler so that galaxy s owners can see the 2-5x cpu boost promised in 2.2. I'm not hating, I want my phone to be the best, my name is SamsungVibrant after all.

the mytouch hd is second generation snapdragon at 1ghz MSM8255
Front Facing Camera FFC that works on wifi or T-Mobiles network!
hspa+
3.8 WVGA screen
no physical keyboard, its virtual
5megapixel camera with flash
it also has led indicators
T-Mobile TV!
Comes with an 8gb microsd, expandable to 32...I think the internal is only 4gb....so Vibrant wins this one.
FLAWLESS GPS...I don't know for certain, but having owned HTC phones, I can almost guarantee 12 out of 12 sats with 6.6 foot accuracy almost always.
I think it might also have an fm tuner built in.

I still prefer the vibrant because of the larger screen and the enormous memory, but I DEMAND FROYO 2.2 JIT compiler to be used at its full potential. Otherwise the galaxy S is a dead phone on anything beyond 2.1

By the way, guess what, Honeycomb is around the holiday season, then after that, rumor has it Ice Cream will be out.
Android 'Ice Cream' the sweet toothed followup to Honeycomb? -- Engadget


Why dont you just ask them? Havent you called or writen them before? It would be nice to see their response.

As for Honeycomb.......i doubt it. We arent close to an actualy Gingerbread release. I dont care what is specualted (like the end of this year/Holliday season), many wont see it till at least mid year. We would be lucky imo to see mid year. Ill have a different phone by the time Honeycomb and especially Ie Cream hits. Those years away. No way we will see Honeycomb by this Holliday season.
 
Upvote 0
Why dont you just ask them? Havent you called or writen them before? It would be nice to see their response.

As for Honeycomb.......i doubt it. We arent close to an actualy Gingerbread release. I dont care what is specualted (like the end of this year/Holliday season), many wont see it till at least mid year. We would be lucky imo to see mid year. Ill have a different phone by the time Honeycomb and especially Ie Cream hits. Those years away. No way we will see Honeycomb by this Holliday season.

Woops I didn't mean honeycomb, I meant to say Gingberbread will be out around Holidays.

All these deserts are confusing me. So the supposedly now we have Gingerbread, then Honeycomb then Icre Cream?

I thought Google had said that after Gingerbread, they would from that point on only release new version once a year.

This is confusing to keep up with.

If this forbes source is correct then it appears Gingerbread is 3.0. Honeycomb is 3.5 And Ice cream is 4.0
http://blogs.forbes.com/elizabethwo...called-ice-cream/?boxes=techchanneltopstories
 
Upvote 0
I thought the G2 GPU was faster? According to the androidandme article.

I did read and watch the video from that website, but i did some research and watched some videos. On quadrant, the vibrant was still so much smother and had about 2x the FPS on all the 3D tests than the G2 did. How ever the G2 wasnt bad at all. They also did some other app tests like this 3d mech gpu tech demo, some other stuff aswell. the vibrant came out on top GPU wise.
 
Upvote 0
I did read and watch the video from that website, but i did some research and watched some videos. On quadrant, the vibrant was still so much smother and had about 2x the FPS on all the 3D tests than the G2 did. How ever the G2 wasnt bad at all. They also did some other app tests like this 3d mech gpu tech demo, some other stuff aswell. the vibrant came out on top GPU wise.

You're right, I did see a quadrant video comparing the two. And you know the part of quadrant, that goes through that maze looking room, it ran much smoother on the vibrant.
 
Upvote 0
You're right, I did see a quadrant video comparing the two. And you know the part of quadrant, that goes through that maze looking room, it ran much smoother on the vibrant.

yeah but the 205 has come a long way from the 200. all and all is a good GPU. and should be able to run all if not most things to come in the next while, atleast before the next gen hits late '11
 
Upvote 0
I have both phones and the G2 is definitely my favorite out of the two.

Build quality is on point, seriously. It feels sturdy as heck and just nice in the hand. It also looks like a professional device, not some toy.

It's faster than my Vibrant in almost every area, even though my Vibrant scores 2500 in Quadrant with lagfixes and overclocked to 1.2Ghz. Applications load up instantly and the phone doesn't suddenly become slow after 2 weeks of use like most phones do.

Stock Android > All. It's such a blessing to have a stock android device. Not many are out there, people don't realize how important it is. No dumb UI's, no huge bugs with GPS not working etc. Everything just works, it's Android. Not Touchwiz, or motoblur, or Sense.

The keyboard is the second best I've ever used, the best is of course the Sidekick. But damn, the G2's keyboard is almost flawless. The keys are VERY VERY nice and have the perfect amount of space in them. The first day I had the phone I was already typing like a beast, like the dude on that Droid commercial.

Check my Youtube channel for more stuff on the G2.
 
Upvote 0
Hey Ghost, I played around with the G2 some more today. DEFINITELY KEEP THE VIBRANT!

So I did a bunch of real world stuff, to compare the two phones. I'll outline my findings.

Before I get into that, let me talk about the screen. The G2 appears to be much higher resolution, I'm not sure if it is infact, but I could not see pixels as easily as I do on the Vibrant. However, the Vibrant produces a much more gorgeous picture. The high contrast ratio on the Vibrant makes everything just pop. Also, the 0.3 extra inches on the Vibrant are totally noticeable. I can't imagine anything smaller than 4.0 inches, nor can I imagine anything larger. 4.0 inches is the sweet spot!

Now lets talk about HSPA+... The G2 is HSPA+ but what a disappointment. Running Speedtest.net app several times, the best I got was 1.5mbps, and averaged 0.5mbps. The phone indicated "H" so I'm assuming the signal was in fact 3.5G.

Both phones are built well. However, the Vibrant has a much more "chic" appearance. It looks like a fine piece of technology. You did mention you like the heavier feel of the G2, so I guess this part is just personal preference.

Ok, now for some real world tests. I launched a bunch of apps, on both phones, I used the browser, and I installed apps.

The G2 in some cases launched programs in half the time it took the Vibrant to finish processing and launching. The browser on G2 appears to be a tad bit more refined. Installing apps were extremely fast on the G2. I don't know if there is a flaw in the Vibrant, but the Vibrant in many cases took way too much time, from the moment I clicked download, to the time it was done installing a new program. Actually, sometimes on the Vibrant, when I click download app, it thinks and thinks, and the download starts like 45 seconds later. On the G2 it was INSTANT.

Those are the good points about the G2.

Now, lets talk about the Graphics. The G2 is one tricky phone when it comes to graphics. Sometimes it performs better than the vibrant, sometimes worse. Lets start off with Quadrant. The maze scene on Quadrant ran horribly on the G2. FPS were about 18, while the Vibrant maintained above 35. Then was the planet and the moon scene, the G2 ran much smoother, the Vibrant seemed less refined during this scene. G2 also seemed more smooth on that DNA spiral looking part. So it did bad during the maze scene, but seemed smoother on the other two compared to Vibrant.

Next, I launched Google Earth. Google Earth launched faster on the G2, but the graphics were jerky. The Vibrant took longer to actually load the program, but once it did, it was soooo smooth. The Vibrant wins that one.

The keyboard on the G2 is nice, but I prefer a 4inch screen with a virtual keyboard, like the one on the Vibrant.

So it appears the CPU on the G2 is actually faster, but the GPU is much more difficult to classify.

Overall, the screen is nicer on the Vibrant, the Vibrant is a sexier chic phone, and the GPU provides more consistent performance.

The game might change when 2.2 rolls around. I'm hoping Samsung is hearing my cries about the poor performance of Froyo 2.2 JIT compiler on the Hummingbird. If Samsung optimizes this, I see no reason why the CPU on the Vibrant wouldn't match or even outperform the G2 CPU.

Without a doubt, the Vibrant just has this quality about it, it just feels and looks like a phone I rather own over the G2.

So now I sit and cross my fingers, Samsung, give us a totally optimized Froyo!
 
Upvote 0
Yeah, The Vibrant is a win.. The G2 is a nice phone but it has a lot of unneeded bulk to it. The Screen is not even close to as good as the screen on the Vibrant and the Vibrant has a better feeling in your hand. The main thing about the G2 I cant handle is the way the keyboard is hinged to the phone, All the Floor models had a lot of play (the phone/keyboard would wiggle in your hands when closed) and a friend that got a G2 that was some what solid became loose within 1 week after he had got the phone and that was just with day to day use. He was going to try and get it replaced but after talking to one of the reps they said it was a known issue and its the way the phone is built. He now has a Vibrant.. The reason he went with the G2 in the first place was gps issues but now that it is fixed (thank god) he is much more happy with the Vibrant.

I know there are some cons about the Vibrant but there are much more pros. With that said, it goes with any phone there is no perfect phone and there will always be something to bitch about.
 
Upvote 0
My friend has a G2.. and i have to say that she has had her phone maybe 1 or 2 months longer than mine. but she has various bugs. her phone is way slower than mine. My application and the way that my widgets are organized are way better then the way her phone is setup (both running stock). Im not even going to say how much better my screen is and the performance all together. I personally like the all touch screen phone not the keyboard... but thats up to preference. the only thing that was better on hers really was the GPS but after the update. Mine works great.. so i will definetely pick the vibrant hands down.
 
Upvote 0
My friend has a G2.. and i have to say that she has had her phone maybe 1 or 2 months longer than mine. but she has various bugs. her phone is way slower than mine. My application and the way that my widgets are organized are way better then the way her phone is setup (both running stock). Im not even going to say how much better my screen is and the performance all together. I personally like the all touch screen phone not the keyboard... but thats up to preference. the only thing that was better on hers really was the GPS but after the update. Mine works great.. so i will definetely pick the vibrant hands down.

how has she had it 1 or 2 months longer than yours? The G2 recently was released.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones