1.5 and 2.1 Leak, Side-By-Side Comparisons

[Frisco]

Opinions aside, it seems useful to have some lists developed in here with actual comparisons of the relative merits of each of 1.5 and the 2.1 leak.

I'm hoping the thread does not degenerate into allegiances for one or the other so much as real data, although the experience users are having is part of the equation and should be commented on.

2.1 has this or that, but 1.5 does not. 1.5 is more stable in this area, but 2.1 is not. .. etc.

 

[iAndroiid]

I've had the phone since December. I rocked whatever version was on it when I first bought the phone. Then I remember there was an update sometime in January I believe. So, I had 1.5 for a solid 3 months. I did not really have too many problems with 1.5. other than it was just laggy. I used a Advanced Task Killer to end extra things to give the phone more speed/memory and to end things I was not using like games, music, and other app's. I did heavily download many applications (well over 300+ applications). I did delete the ones I knew I would never use again. The first week of March I screwed the phone all up. Made it look like the iPhone. Had the iPhone Lock to it and once passed the lock screen looked exactly like the iPhone also. All app's icons everything matching the iPhone. Screwed it all up and got no signal and messed up a bunch of things so I did a factory reset on the phone. After 2-3days of the factory reset I read all 20 pages of the bug's with the 2.1 leak. I also researched and read as much as I could about the 2.1 leak. Within the next couple days I followed "Matlock's" Upgrading to 2.1 Tutorial Thread and coverted my phone from 1.5 to the 2.1 leak version. Since the last 2days I have been running the leaked 2.1 update and have had 0 force closes, 0 problems with the applications I run, and no lag at all. So far 2.1 has been great to me. I will be making a thread of all the applcations I have including the paid and free applications that I run. Hopefully if people follow it they will not have any problems with the leaked 2.1 update. On a side note the only flaw 2.1 has is having to sign in when the phone restarts. I am working on a way to lag the phone or press certain things on startup to avoid this from happening since the reason why it is happening to everyone is it's checking before all other things startup on the phone. It's really easy to just enter your password for your gmail account and not that much trouble for most since the average person doesn't turn off there phone.

 

[kmw]

"Messages App"
-1.5 was more stable. I say delete, and it deletes and removes it from the view.
-2.1 I say delete, and it deletes, but the screen might not refresh until I exit and reenter.

"Lock Screen"
-1.5, the lock screen wouldn't always respond to my finger drag. In 2.1, I haven't seen an issue with it yet.

In terms of speed, 2.1 is more responsive and the animations are a lot smoother (like the SMS Widget, sliding between screens, application transitions, and whatnot).

In terms of stability, some of the stock apps on 1.5 were more stable (like "Messages", "Browser", etc).

2.1 adds a "Sync now" widget button. I don't think 1.5 had that. I'm always adding contacts and stuff, so this was a cool thing.

Battery life seems about the same.

In terms of design/icons, the icons in 2.1 aren't as bubbly as 1.5 (not sure if "bubbly" is the right word). Some of the icons don't fit the style of my background...

 

[dewalist]

No market app could change the brightness in 1.5 and keep it that way - it kept returning to the level configured in settings. With 2.1 that is no longer an issue...

The market now has screenshots for many apps so you can window shop before downloading. I still wish they had a "starred" feature apps that I like but don't want to download just yet...

2.1 has Navigation - which is amazing, even if you don't use it that much. As an ex-Boy Scout I have never owned a regular GPS unit. I can navigate using Google Maps just fine but it is far more convenient to use Navigation when driving...

There are a bunch of other 2.1 apps that you can now use that do not support 1.5 - Google Goggles for one...

The desk clock feature is also nice looking, but I don't use it personally.

I use dxTop so I can't speak to the relative merits of the various versions of Sense...

Overall despite the bugs of an early release version, I'm happy with my upgrade and wouldn't want to go back to 1.5 (even if we could).

Just my $.02...

 

[Caddyman]

2.1 thoughts

market IS much improved

youtube app works

improved (IMO) way of handling charging/mounting/etc

leap is cool

dialer is LAGGY

everything else seems faster, and i have more apps now then i did with 1.5

 

[aleis]

2.1 thoughts

market IS much improved

youtube app works

improved (IMO) way of handling charging/mounting/etc

leap is cool

dialer is LAGGY

everything else seems faster, and i have more apps now then i did with 1.5

ditto.
google navigation is what i REALLY wanted from 2.1
alot snappier also...NBA league pass is the business also!!
LIVE GAMES!!

 

[bjanow]

I'm hoping the thread does not degenerate into allegiances for one or the other

Simply friendly banter. We all love our Erises and this is a fun distraction from ... (fill in the blank)

 

[bjanow]

Battery, battery, battery. I actually get a full day now on half a charge. By 2 PM, on 1.5, I either had to switch batteries or charge on my computer. I know others have not had much improvement, but I have.

End call button actually ends the call
Great market apps
Touchdown for 2.1 better
Helicopter view of homescreens
Desktop clock.. just what I needed
Navigation! What else can I say about this? One of the reasons I even looked at Android months ago.

 

[OfTheDamned]

Overall I think my Eris is running a lot smoother with 2.1 on it.

I noticed that I had less app memory available when I originally installed 2.1. 147 Mb compared to the 159 Mb that I had in 1.5. Although I also have more apps installed and I am at 87.45 Mb of app memory where I was at about 65 Mb on 1.5. Not sure if 2.1 is making better use of the SD card, but it looks like it.

Stock Sense Apps Pros:
-The weather widget has much nicer animation and an option to set update intervals
-Peep has many new features and feels like a full twitter app
-Calendar shows more information and actually allows you to move from day to day in agenda view. There is also an agenda widget that has been added.
-The Camera is much better now. It seems a little faster and the zoom + options are much easier to get to. May be in my head, but I think the pictures are better as well.
-Desk clock is a nice feature, not sure I will use it much though.
-Gmail allows for multiple accounts now. Big plus in my book since I have 4 different gmail addresses.
-Browser has the address bar at the top all the time now. It also appears to be faster on some pages.
-Navigator is a great addition. The way that HTC combined all the navigation apps into one is a real plus to me. I may actually start using footprints now because of the way this is set up. Google Nav is obviously a huge addition to all of this.
-Settings has changed quite a bit. Many new settings and a ton of improvement, IMO. This would almost need a photo walk through for anyone who has not seen it.
-Youtube app works like a charm. I never looked at youtube all that much, but I am watching a ton of stuff on their now.
-The market is night and day compared to the old one. The market has taken a giant leap forward in my opinion.
-Leap. While I don't use it that often it is nice to have.

Stock Sense Apps Neutral:
-The people has had some changes. I can't tell if some of them are good or bad. They are just different.
-Albums has been changed to Photos. I don't honestly know if there is a difference though.


Stock Sense Apps Cons:
-The calculator is a little too simple now. I liked it better in 1.5
-Gmail missing embedded images
-Links to the web in some apps don't work properly

I wanted to do some screen shots for some of the features and changes, but I can't get the SDK to work right now. I may come back and post some shots if I get it functioning.

 

[Frisco]

Simply friendly banter. We all love our Erises and this is a fun distraction from ... (reality ).

I agree.

And I've finally seen some real comparison stuff, even though most of it can be found laced through other threads around the Eris forum it's good to see it gathered into one thread.

 

[pkopalek]

I've had the phone since December. I rocked whatever version was on it when I first bought the phone. Then I remember there was an update sometime in January I believe. So, I had 1.5 for a solid 3 months. I did not really have too many problems with 1.5. other than it was just laggy. I used a Advanced Task Killer to end extra things to give the phone more speed/memory and to end things I was not using like games, music, and other app's. I did heavily download many applications (well over 300+ applications). I did delete the ones I knew I would never use again. The first week of March I screwed the phone all up. Made it look like the iPhone. Had the iPhone Lock to it and once passed the lock screen looked exactly like the iPhone also. All app's icons everything matching the iPhone. Screwed it all up and got no signal and messed up a bunch of things so I did a factory reset on the phone. After 2-3days of the factory reset I read all 20 pages of the bug's with the 2.1 leak. I also researched and read as much as I could about the 2.1 leak. Within the next couple days I followed "Matlock's" Upgrading to 2.1 Tutorial Thread and coverted my phone from 1.5 to the 2.1 leak version. Since the last 2days I have been running the leaked 2.1 update and have had 0 force closes, 0 problems with the applications I run, and no lag at all. So far 2.1 has been great to me. I will be making a thread of all the applcations I have including the paid and free applications that I run. Hopefully if people follow it they will not have any problems with the leaked 2.1 update. On a side note the only flaw 2.1 has is having to sign in when the phone restarts. I am working on a way to lag the phone or press certain things on startup to avoid this from happening since the reason why it is happening to everyone is it's checking before all other things startup on the phone. It's really easy to just enter your password for your gmail account and not that much trouble for most since the average person doesn't turn off there phone.

When you boot your phone and have no signal and everything is force closing, you need to UNINSTALL SOME APPS.

Your ROM memory is too full. Whether you have 1.5 or 2.1, this is possible. 2.1 just probably manages memory better. It's not about how many apps you have, it's about how much space they take up.

If you have 100 1mb+ apps, that's 100mb+ of space used up (too much probably). If you have 300 100k apps, that's 30mb of space used up (perfectly OK).

I always make sure I have 40MB available before I try to reboot my phone. Last time I had it crash, I only had 26MB left, according to Home > Menu > Settings > SD Card & Storage in leftover storage space.

2.1, this number might be different, but being <40MB makes me nervous. So I clear my Browser cache before I reboot to make the number as high as I can.

I'm still on 1.5 even.




-------------------------------

I like 2.1 for its increased speed, efficiency, slickness, and tightness.

The lock bar is faster, things are less laggy,

pinch zooming home screen is great on Sense, better features under Settings,

and better Facebook integration (once it works).

I figured out the Facebook for HTC Sense thing everyone has been talking about btw...

That is all. 2.1 >, but I'm waiting for the full version. I have too many home screens to give up, just to give them up AGAIN when the official version comes out.

 

[thenestor]

-The calculator is a little too simple now. I liked it better in 1.5

Did you try rotating the calculator to landscape mode? It becomes scientific that way.

 

[mhseris]

Touchdown for 2.1 better

A slightly off-topic question here - when you switched to 2.1, did you have to re-download Touchdown for 2.1? Or how did you make the swap from the earlier Touchdown to the 2.1 version? Trying to plan ahead here.

 

[bjanow]

A slightly off-topic question here - when you switched to 2.1, did you have to re-download Touchdown for 2.1? Or how did you make the swap from the earlier Touchdown to the 2.1 version? Trying to plan ahead here.

Totally different version. It was gone on the upgrade. I even did a backup of my accounts but the new version didn't recognize the backups from 1.5. But.. (big but here) the old serial number works with the new version so there is no need to get a new key. Pain resetting up my accounts but Activesync worked much better and it just seems "push" is faster. It doesn't use nearly as much battery as it did before when syncing accounts, imo. So as for planning ahead, just have your serial ready, and all your account settings in one place. Redownload from the market and you should be good to go.

 

[jjr1968]

sniff, sniff...where's my 2.1 ??

 

[OfTheDamned]

Did you try rotating the calculator to landscape mode? It becomes scientific that way.

Nice! I had no idea.

 

[carmendiva]

Over the past week i've had 2.1 on 2 erises i've noticed that while it's speedy it still has a lot of lag.

I've yet to use Navigation and other 2.1 new features however the fact I can have multiple gmail accounts is perfect

however it seems like my mail app doesnt display new messages...

Idk what is up with the camera but it's a bit....worse than the 1.5 camera. It seems grainier.

I love leap though

 

[ggangi]

What is leap? Is it pinching to see all 7 screens at once?

 

[Caddyman]

helicopter view some people call it. where you can see all your screens at once....

 

[bjanow]

however it seems like my mail app doesnt display new messages...

That happened to me on 1.5 too! I finally gave up and bought Touchdown, but it's expensive. Weird.

 

[kmw]

I noticed that with a few of my contacts, whenever I call them (from the People app contact card), it tries to setup a 3-way call with the same person... I only press the "Call Mobile" button once though... Putting a shortcut directly to "Call Mobile" seems to alleviate the problem.
So some parts are buggy...

Navigation is good, could be a bit better. I noticed that it doesn't always say the turns to take for some reason... Or it'd say them far in advance, and say nothing when you get there.

For those on 1.5, Waze is still a good app, but there are some parts where it takes you down strange routes or the wrong way... So on 2.1, Navigation is a lot safer in areas you're unfamiliar with.

Running the GPS seems to take more battery on 2.1 then it did 1.5 (without any gps apps running). On 1.5, I never turned off the GPS and could make it through the day, on 2.1 the phone makes it through the day, but it red lines (the battery bar gets really low). Turning off the GPS fixes the issue, but I like it on for GeoTagging photos... Looks like a new battery is in question...

The GPS also seems to locate you a bit slower than on 1.5, or maybe it's just me...

Multi-touch on 2.1 seems more responsive, but it changed from 1.5. On 1.5, I could just pinch and whatnot, but on 2.1, I need to put on finger down, and then do the gesture with the other finger.

I actually thought Leap was pretty useless at first, but now I find myself using it more and more (maybe because I'm getting widgets I actually use). So if you like using widgets and jumping between them, it's cool.

I'm personally really happy with 2.1. Made my friends jealous (not the only reason I'm happy). It's a lot more responsive, and other than the issue with calling about 3 people, I don't have any "Oh Why God!?" issues with it (it became an "Oh why god!?" issue when I'm asking for directions running 5 minutes late, and they say "Now go to..." and then I hear ringing and it's trying to 3-way call the same person and we don't know how our phones work ).

 

[Bswartz95]

2.1 allows you to turn off haptic feedback on the 4 menu buttons, and they are much more responsive!

I haven't noticed any lag at all on the dialer. I can't be the only one. I haven't experienced lag anywhere on the phone.

My only "complaint" is the signal indicator being off and perhaps logging into Google on reboot.

Everything else is gravy.

 

[Frisco]

helicopter view some people call it. where you can see all your screens at once....

Love that. It's not just cute, but would be useful to me.

C'mon OTA.

 

[OfTheDamned]

2.1 allows you to turn off haptic feedback on the 4 menu buttons, and they are much more responsive!

I haven't noticed any lag at all on the dialer. I can't be the only one. I haven't experienced lag anywhere on the phone.

My only "complaint" is the signal indicator being off and perhaps logging into Google on reboot.

Everything else is gravy.

I'm with you. I don't have any lag either.

 

[OfTheDamned]

I did a time test to show how things were performing on my Eris when I was running on 1.5. This is the original post. I tried to set things up the same for this. The differences are that I currently have 86.54 Mb of app space, my battery is 84% and I am running on the leaked 2.1 now. The times in bold are the most recent.


Just ran through a couple of time tests on my phone. I currently have 37 third party apps installed on my phone. My available space is 59 MB and I have not cleared the cache in a few days. I have 10 widgets running on my home screens and the battery is at 58% right now. I have no task killer installed on the phone. Prior to this test the phone was asleep for a minimum of ten minutes. Also, none of these apps (except for Gmail) have been opened today.

Times are recorded using a coworker's Rolex:

Browser: 5 seconds (open and load google) 7 seconds
Market: 2 seconds (open and fully load) 2 seconds
Gmail: 2 seconds (open and fully load) 2 seconds
Weather: 6 seconds (open and fully load) 6 seconds
People: 3 seconds (open with all pictures showing) 3 seconds
Albums: 5 seconds (open and all albums visible) 4 seconds
Barcode Scanner: 6 seconds (open and ready to scan) 6 seconds
Calendar: 2 seconds (open to full month view) 1 second
Camera: 5 seconds (open and ready to take picture) 3 seconds
Google Maps: 7 seconds (open and found my location) 7 seconds
Gtalk: 3 seconds (open and ready to chat) 4 seconds
Key Ring: 3 seconds (open and ready to find card) 2 seconds
Messages: 3 seconds (open and ready to text) 3 seconds
Music (app not widget): 2.5 seconds (open and ready to play) 3 seconds
Peep: 5 seconds (open and account loaded) 4 seconds
Settings: 2 seconds (open and ready) 1 second
Manage applications: 67 seconds (open w/ all icons and memory showing) 43 seconds

So most apps pretty much stayed the same or improved just slightly. Big improvement on Manage applications and a couple of seconds slowdown on the browser. I still say the phone feels faster to me. Placebo? Possibly.