What's a worthy replacement?

womb raider · Mar 19, 2012

Jon_LTD said:
I wouldn't commit myself to 3 personally.. Everytime I hear people talk about it, it's always negative. Just puts me off.

FWIW I've been with 3 for four years now and have always found them to be awesome. Had one time last October where the reception and 3g signal directly around my house died for about 4/5 days but they kept me updated the whole time it was down and knocked a tenner off my monthly bill for the inconvenience.

In terms of getting 3g/HSDPA signal it's easily the best network imo. I have friends on O2, Vodafone, Orange etc and I get signal in places where they can't get any at all. Was in Manchester a while back and my friend on O2 had no 3g signal the whole night....in a city centre ffs! The only places I've been completely without signal is some of the really rural villages in the middle of nowhere (annoyingly I work in such a place)...but 95% of the time I'm good to go.

rowlers · Mar 19, 2012

SUroot said:
Removable battery and media (or lack of)

Oh thats not bad then! 32gb is more than enough for me. there is a way to get the battery out too

Xperia S battery can be changed if you really need to | Xperia Blog
not particularly straight forward tho.

Hard resets are:

The process is holding the volume UP and the power key at the same time

5 seconds > Restart phone

10 seconds > Shutdown phone.

don;t know if this give a proper "battery pull" tho?

rowlers · Mar 19, 2012

womb raider said:
FWIW I've been with 3 for four years now and have always found them to be awesome. Had one time last October where the reception and 3g signal directly around my house died for about 4/5 days but they kept me updated the whole time it was down and knocked a tenner off my monthly bill for the inconvenience.

To be fair to 3 my wife and daughter lost complete signal for three weeks in the new year, storms borked 3 of the antennas in the area, they were refunded 3 weeks line rental, but we had to go the shop to speak to someone who spoke english. :mad:

athegn · Mar 19, 2012

Just want an HTC Desire with twice the memory and better battery; use a 32GB micro card - do not want to change that. Not interested in high quality camera; have DLSR and many lenses.

Don't want/need larger screen; have 50" plasma and hifi if I really want quality sound and vision - on the road just need basic sound/vision.

Liamalone · Mar 19, 2012

rowlers said:
Wife and daughter are both on 3. signal round me (west cumbria) is generally pretty good, not quiite as strong as Orange tho,.
BUT, big BUT 3 Customer service is absolutely AWFUL!

I have to stand up for 3 here lol

I have had the need to call customer service many, many times and apart from the odd rep with dodgy english I have found them to be great.

From network issues at the start of my contract to recent repair issues they have been courteous and helpful and I have never had to wait more than 2 or 3mins before speaking to someone. I also have found that they are fond off knocking fivers off your bill lol - I rang up to see if they had any plans to upgrade the network in my home area and they knocked a fiver of the monthly tariff, I was only enquiring and not complaining lol as I knew it was 2g at home but I have a good 3g signal at work where I need it

On the repair side of things they are lethal, in a good way.
1) Phone dropped = screen not turning on. Phoned Tues, received jiffy bag Wed, sent on Thurs afternoon, phone back fixed on Saturday

2) Phone bounced down stairs = broken screen. Chanced arm for a warranty repair. Phoned Mon, jiffy on Tues, sent on Wed, received letter on Sat saying warranty wouldn't cover it but a charge of

Abdur · Mar 20, 2012

I still have one more year left in my contract. (worst decision ever)

The desire seems to run a lot of games just fine, and all the apps I need just fine, so I see no reason to upgrade at this time. Sure it might not be the top dog, but its still quite decent.

SUroot · Mar 21, 2012

Oooh Sony just released Rom and kernel source for the xperia s. On top of which, they released how to build guides. That's supportive.

jay_kay · Mar 21, 2012

SUroot said:
Oooh Sony just released Rom and kernel source for the xperia s. On top of which, they released how to build guides. That's supportive.

Just read that too. Very impressive :cool:

My bro just got one and loves it. Its his first real smartphone so looking forward to having a bit of time to really test it!

Tyseyh · Mar 21, 2012

SUroot said:
Oooh Sony just released Rom and kernel source for the xperia s. On top of which, they released how to build guides. That's supportive.

Apparently atm you can only unlock the bootloader of certain phones, with mine you can, which I'm happy about.

SUroot · Mar 21, 2012

Tyseh, yet to see your hands-on review.....

Waiting with baited breath...

Tyseyh · Mar 21, 2012

Well I've only been able to use the phone as an actual phone for two days now, waited 6 days for Orange to activate my sim.

First impressions :
Big.. It feels a lot bigger and a little awkward to hold at first, slowly getting used to that tho, the bottom corner digs into your hand after prolonged use too.

It's fast.. I thought my Desire was quick but now it seems slow in comparison for example, removing an app on my Desire takes 4-5 seconds. (long time.. Ha)
On this it takes about a second and it's done.
Had no lag what so ever, even when flicking through from camera to messages or the playstation store.
Speaking of the camera..
It is advertised as a 12MP but that is only partially true.

Only has a 12MP in a 4:3 ratio, otherwise it's 9MP.
Photos look beautiful on the phone, on the PC.. Not so great.
Not bad by any respects but not as good as the phone.

Not had any issues with the buttons either like many people mention.

Anything you would like to know?

SUroot · Mar 21, 2012

Tyseyh said:
Well I've only been able to use the phone as an actual phone for two days now, waited 6 days for Orange to activate my sim.

First impressions :
Big.. It feels a lot bigger and a little awkward to hold at first, slowly getting used to that tho, the bottom corner digs into your hand after prolonged use too.

It's fast.. I thought my Desire was quick but now it seems slow in comparison for example, removing an app on my Desire takes 4-5 seconds. (long time.. Ha)
On this it takes about a second and it's done.
Had no lag what so ever, even when flicking through from camera to messages or the playstation store.
Speaking of the camera..
It is advertised as a 12MP but that is only partially true.

Only has a 12MP in a 4:3 ratio, otherwise it's 9MP.
Photos look beautiful on the phone, on the PC.. Not so great.
Not bad by any respects but not as good as the phone.

Not had any issues with the buttons either like many people mention.

Anything you would like to know?

battery?

Its no surprise they dont look good on displays. Megapixels doesnt really mean anything in picture quality. Its only at massive physical print outs that it would make a difference.

To put it into perspective,

a HD TV = 1920x1080 resolution
1920x1080 = 2073600 Pixels

2073600 Pixels = 2.07 Megapixels

So to look at the photo on a 1080P TV, you're squashing 6 pixels from the photo into 1 pixel on the display.

Edit> Woah havent thanked anyone from a Browser for a while, when did the tweet / Facebook like come into affect? Nice

Tyseyh · Mar 21, 2012

I was just talking to my friend about that too, got me all kinds of confused.

The battery so far is pretty good.
I got 25 hours out of it or there about, just texting, odd call, just like my Desires usage but with that I used to get about 18 hours or so.
But bare in mind that was custom rom and underclocked when the screen was off.

Was only around hour 35 with the screen on though, so it's pretty hard to get an average yet.

SUroot · Mar 21, 2012

What's the UI like?

Tyseyh · Mar 21, 2012

Just seen the actual size of the Screen Shot.. (lol)
The UI is pretty much the same as standard Android if I'm honest, I'll post more screenies in a mo.
The speaker is nice,clear, can defiantly tell the difference when in a call.
the Loud speaker is also very nice.
Once again, clear..loud

Here you go.

Home Screen, Only thing changed is the wallpaper,everything else is as it's meant to be.

App Drawer

Standard Dialer

Standard Control Widget.

So yeah, like i said everything seems to be like standard Android

rowlers · Mar 21, 2012

I'm liking this more and more!
Keep checking the sub forum on here and xda to see how well supported it becomes..

SUroot · Mar 21, 2012

rowlers said:
I'm liking this more and more!
Keep checking the sub forum on here and xda to see how well supported it becomes..

With the source and guide, you could support yourself!!!

rowlers · Mar 21, 2012

SUroot said:
With the source and guide, you could support yourself!!!

Masssssiivvvvveeee learning curve I'd imagine! Don't have the time for that lol!

Tyseyh · Mar 21, 2012

SUroot said:
With the source and guide, you could support yourself!!!

Does sound interesting, but I wouldn't know where to start... Though I guess that's why there's a guide!

Kibbster · Mar 22, 2012

barefootpilot said:
wtf? It's supposed to be a phone not a mini tablet. The Desire is a good size, I'm really not getting this whole 'mines bigger than yours' thing.

One thing the iPhone has right, if you ask me.

While I agree the Desire/iPhone size fits the pocket perfectly so I can sit down with it in my pocket and even drive with it there.
Surfing the web on such a small screen is crap IMHO
All the zooming in and out and scrolling around annoys me so much I no longer use my Desire for web based stuff.
I just use it for apps and the phone.

Bigger is better for media and surfing IMHO.

SUroot · Mar 22, 2012

Kibbster said:
While I agree the Desire/iPhone size fits the pocket perfectly so I can sit down with it in my pocket and even drive with it there.
Surfing the web on such a small screen is crap IMHO
All the zooming in and out and scrolling around annoys me so much I no longer use my Desire for web based stuff.
I just use it for apps and the phone.

Bigger is better for media and surfing IMHO.

Yes indeed. Although there must be a reasonable compromise, you can't easily have both

Kibbster · Mar 22, 2012

SUroot said:
Yes indeed. Although there must be a reasonable compromise, you can't easily have both

Yup.
It's hard to get the balance between portable and big enough to easily use.
Tablets are perfect for surfing but a real nause to fit in your trouser pocket

And you'd look like Dom Jolly if you tried to use a tablet to make a call hehe

SUroot · Mar 22, 2012

kibbster said:
and you'd look like dom jolly if you tried to use a tablet to make a call hehe

"i'm in the library!"

"...no... It's crap!

Jon_LTD · Mar 22, 2012

Hah! Made me somewhat nostalgic!

SUroot · Mar 22, 2012

Another nice phone:
The new waterproof ELUGA by Panasonic

Shame about Dual Core 1GHZ though

What's a worthy replacement?

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