Believe it or not, I use it a ton on my GNex. It works faster than typing in a PIN or pattern, and it's accurate (for me).
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Those on the fence about what phone to upgrade to this year...
- Thread starter Indy21
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Believe it or not, I use it a ton on my GNex. It works faster than typing in a PIN or pattern, and it's accurate (for me).
Agreed. Interestingly enough, I have the opposite story of yours but primarily the same perspective with a few minor tweaks. My first ever smartphone was a Samsung Fascinate on verizon. What a piece of crap phone that was. Lousy hardware, even more lousy software (compounded by the lack of support/updates from Samsung).
It was this experience that led me (An "I'm a PC" guy, never owned an apple product save a second-hand iPod) to the iPhone.
My experience has been nothing short of stellar so far (8 months and counting on my 4S). Then again, holding a large turd up to my head and talking to it would have been better than that samsung fascinate.
I do think there is a fair amount of "fanboy-ism" with apple products though. I'm well aware of the shortcomings of apple devices but for my needs, it fits the bill better than the old android phone that I had.
It would need:
4.3 inch screen: i might as well forget it lol.
Tapered design like the iPad and iPod touch: again, remote chance, although more than the 4.3 in. screen.
At least 1GB RAM: will allow less reloading of browser tabs and apps when switching, probably going to happen.
Not much else. Most of my wants are software based so that is another story, but based on above it seems i will likely skip this one just like the 4S.
Not much else in the hardware department though. Processor is fine and A5X will provide the GPU improvements anyway. Storage wise 64 GB option is already great (a 128 would be nice but won't happen for sure so meh) and the camera is good so far and will definitely will be good on the next one too. LTE is pretty much a given too.
I guess I will look at iPhone 6/7 in the future with iOS 7 Am more excited about the GS3 launching soon so i can retire the iPhone 4.
4.3 inch screen: i might as well forget it lol.
Tapered design like the iPad and iPod touch: again, remote chance, although more than the 4.3 in. screen.
At least 1GB RAM: will allow less reloading of browser tabs and apps when switching, probably going to happen.
Not much else. Most of my wants are software based so that is another story, but based on above it seems i will likely skip this one just like the 4S.
Not much else in the hardware department though. Processor is fine and A5X will provide the GPU improvements anyway. Storage wise 64 GB option is already great (a 128 would be nice but won't happen for sure so meh) and the camera is good so far and will definitely will be good on the next one too. LTE is pretty much a given too.
I guess I will look at iPhone 6/7 in the future with iOS 7
Am more excited about the GS3 launching soon so i can retire the iPhone 4.
I'm not due for an upgrade as I got the 4S and there is nothing Apple can do to get me to pay $650 outright for a phone.
But to play along what I think it'll have:
1. New design with 4" screen.
2. Slightly faster CPU/more ram
3. LTE
4. Better camera.
Next year we'll get a bigger upgrade in the CPU and more storage. With the prices of solid state storage there's not reason why they can't bump base to 32 and on up for the others. It's Apple, they have to ration upgrades so some upgrades are put off a year.
But to play along what I think it'll have:
1. New design with 4" screen.
2. Slightly faster CPU/more ram
3. LTE
4. Better camera.
Next year we'll get a bigger upgrade in the CPU and more storage. With the prices of solid state storage there's not reason why they can't bump base to 32 and on up for the others. It's Apple, they have to ration upgrades so some upgrades are put off a year.
Things I would like see:
Improved Retina Display
NFC support
A5X class SOC
Bigger display. I don't care if it is longer wider or both.
Better Camera, with lag free shutter from the first shot.
I dont care about LTE
Improved Retina Display
NFC support
A5X class SOC
Bigger display. I don't care if it is longer wider or both.
Better Camera, with lag free shutter from the first shot.
I dont care about LTE
This is one thing that I will say about the GSIII vs the iP4S: Samsung has really made leaps and bounds in terms of innovation in the past two iterations of the Galaxy S series. In my honest opinion (and yes, some will disagree with me), up until the release of ICS, iOS was absolutely dominating the smartphone market in terms of features and applications. The iPhone 4 was and is an amazing phone, but times have moved on. Android 2.0- 2.3 was a bit of a joke. Multitasking wasn't very good, the applications were mediocre, etc, etc. The SGSII fixed some of this with (dare I say) touchwiz, but nonetheless it wasn't up to the iOS standard. It's for that reason that many have a hard time accepting that things have taken a bit of a change.
The GSIII is not deemed amazing because of a single feature-- it's the compilation of various conveniences that make it appealing (i.e. Smart Stay, S Beam (let's face it-- Android Beam was and is useless, but the GS series generally sells so much that this feature might become usable), S Voice (although it isn't up to Siri's standard or anywhere close with iOS 6, it does to a decent bit to make it convenient, Quad Core Exynos OR S4 Krait-- both fantastic, great camera, big screen, expandable storage, direct call, etc). On the other hand, you have the iP4S which was revealed with Siri, the A5, a fantastic camera, 64GB storage, and cellular improvements.
From two points of view: a) your average consumer; or b) your tech-wise consumer, you have a relatively similar reaction:
a) That's a lot of features that sound useful
b) That's a lot of cool, innovative features that I'd love to have on my phone!
In addition to these new features, GSIII users are also blessed with old Android features which have not yet been adopted by the iPhone: Turn-by-Turn Directions for starters (until iOS 6 brings it), 4G LTE, widgets, etc.
Of course the 4S is going to sound underwhelming, and in many people's opinions (including mine), it is. Is it a great phone? Absolutely! The ultimate deciding factor at the end of the day is going to be iOS vs. Android in virtually every situation when deciding between these phones. As much as I'm a hardcore Apple fan, I do like these features. Will I be getting the GSIII? No. Why? Because I only get Nexus devices when I go Android. The ability to install custom ROM's is something so underrated. ROM's are much more than customization. ROM's add productivity abilities, overall better phone features, and more. Nexus phones are best for this. Will I be getting the next Nexus phone? Maybe, unless the iP5 wins me over (and it quite possibly could).
TL;DR: The GSIII revealed so many features that it is going to appeal to a broad audience, while the iP4S relied a bit more on customers who were just getting into the iPhone world (i.e. branching out to new carriers) and those who really liked Siri.
The GSIII is not deemed amazing because of a single feature-- it's the compilation of various conveniences that make it appealing (i.e. Smart Stay, S Beam (let's face it-- Android Beam was and is useless, but the GS series generally sells so much that this feature might become usable), S Voice (although it isn't up to Siri's standard or anywhere close with iOS 6, it does to a decent bit to make it convenient, Quad Core Exynos OR S4 Krait-- both fantastic, great camera, big screen, expandable storage, direct call, etc). On the other hand, you have the iP4S which was revealed with Siri, the A5, a fantastic camera, 64GB storage, and cellular improvements.
From two points of view: a) your average consumer; or b) your tech-wise consumer, you have a relatively similar reaction:
a) That's a lot of features that sound useful
b) That's a lot of cool, innovative features that I'd love to have on my phone!
In addition to these new features, GSIII users are also blessed with old Android features which have not yet been adopted by the iPhone: Turn-by-Turn Directions for starters (until iOS 6 brings it), 4G LTE, widgets, etc.
Of course the 4S is going to sound underwhelming, and in many people's opinions (including mine), it is. Is it a great phone? Absolutely! The ultimate deciding factor at the end of the day is going to be iOS vs. Android in virtually every situation when deciding between these phones. As much as I'm a hardcore Apple fan, I do like these features. Will I be getting the GSIII? No. Why? Because I only get Nexus devices when I go Android. The ability to install custom ROM's is something so underrated. ROM's are much more than customization. ROM's add productivity abilities, overall better phone features, and more. Nexus phones are best for this. Will I be getting the next Nexus phone? Maybe, unless the iP5 wins me over (and it quite possibly could).
TL;DR: The GSIII revealed so many features that it is going to appeal to a broad audience, while the iP4S relied a bit more on customers who were just getting into the iPhone world (i.e. branching out to new carriers) and those who really liked Siri.
The promises of SwiftKey like predictions for Jelly Bean keyboard further highlights how painfully unfortunate Apple didn't talk about a single improvement to their keyboard for iOS 6.
New expandable notifications too. Boat's definitely sailing for iOS...
New expandable notifications too. Boat's definitely sailing for iOS...
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Plus it's too early to tell, but Google's new voice search will probably wipe the floor with Siri. Here's my reasoning: -
1. Google's forte is search. Their knowledge graph is likely to be very comprehensive and should be able to provide answers for almost anything. They have always had THE search engine.
2. Google's voice recognition is outstanding. So far, it just hasn't had the natural language features that Siri has, but it has always been incredibly accurate at actually understanding what people say.
Hopefully they'll apply the natural language element to voice actions too. Ideally it should be integrated with the search box.
And Google Now looks amazing
What i'd like to see in the next iPhone, as hardware features. Some of them are mainly for businesses and won't apply to a lot of users:
1: NFC capability. This way, I bring the device near a router, they exchange keys. No typing in 63 character WPA2 passwords.
2: The ability to have "partitions", i.e. work/home. This is important because a lot of companies are going BYOD, so having work and home stuff separated would be very helpful. That way, if the work Exchange server demands an 8-10 character password, it is only prompted for when using that "partition", and not for the whole device. Plus, if someone worked for multiple clients, it would keep their stuff separate. I do know that the ARM CPU supports this functionality at the low level, called worlds, and multiple worlds can work at the same time on the same CPU core.
3: Call me crazy, but a debug mode, perhaps accessible to registered developers, so the phone can have the ability to ssh in and tinker with stuff. Essentially a factory jailbreak. Likely wouldn't happen, but we can always dream.
4: Improvements in the keyboard.
5: LTE support.
6: Ability to use USB3 if available.
7: More RAM if possible.
1: NFC capability. This way, I bring the device near a router, they exchange keys. No typing in 63 character WPA2 passwords.
2: The ability to have "partitions", i.e. work/home. This is important because a lot of companies are going BYOD, so having work and home stuff separated would be very helpful. That way, if the work Exchange server demands an 8-10 character password, it is only prompted for when using that "partition", and not for the whole device. Plus, if someone worked for multiple clients, it would keep their stuff separate. I do know that the ARM CPU supports this functionality at the low level, called worlds, and multiple worlds can work at the same time on the same CPU core.
3: Call me crazy, but a debug mode, perhaps accessible to registered developers, so the phone can have the ability to ssh in and tinker with stuff. Essentially a factory jailbreak. Likely wouldn't happen, but we can always dream.
4: Improvements in the keyboard.
5: LTE support.
6: Ability to use USB3 if available.
7: More RAM if possible.
honestly the only thing keeping me from switching would be LTE.
I want to make sure my next phone has LTE.
Also just a taller iphone would make me switch. i want a phone that is wider as well and not just taller. I'm wanting some screen real estate
I want to make sure my next phone has LTE.
Also just a taller iphone would make me switch. i want a phone that is wider as well and not just taller. I'm wanting some screen real estate
That's funny I am a day one iPhone 4 user and I managed to get a new device when the 4S came out. I am much happier with my 4S than the 4.
Yeah, I'd like a slightly wider form factor with longer screen as well. Not small tablet size, but they could definately do it without OVER doing it, ya know? These other Android based phones are quite impressive and I actually like the larger overall size (5" screen is pushing it a little), I'm not a fan of smaller is better, I don't want some stupid-thin phone.
Give me killer battery power, bigger screen, fast processor and I'm good. I don't care if it's a half inch thick or has a 4.25-4.5" screen! And to think a couple of years ago we were speculating some iPhone "nano", now everyone is convinced going bigger is better, lol.
Sadly, I think you may be switching, because I don't think the new phone will be any wider.
Then again, I hate making a bunch of predictions when no one will actually know until Apple takes the stage in Fall.
It's like, I hate not knowing but I love it at the same time. Leaves you anticipating some HUGE surprise! Of course, the surprise can be somewhat lackluster unless it's something major, because you've done all this waiting and hoping and speculating to the point that you convince yourself that if it doesn't have 'xyz' then you'll be pissed, lol, that's the part I hate.
COME ON FALL ALREADY!!! LoL
Probably will buy for the same reasons. Regardless, I will buy one because I have bought every iPhone model released to date.
Well my contract was up at the end of Feb and wanted a 4S but a lot of people talked me into waiting. Next time I won't wait, and just upgrade.
My two cents...
4G LTE, better camera, at least a 4 inch screen, NFC, and better battery and RAM
But, no matter what Apple introduces, I'm getting it because I have an upgrade
4G LTE, better camera, at least a 4 inch screen, NFC, and better battery and RAM
But, no matter what Apple introduces, I'm getting it because I have an upgrade
I've got a galaxy s3, and most likely won't be buying an iPhone 5, but if they release an iPod touch 5, I will gladly pay $300 just to have a top-generation apple device around with me. iOS just does everything so much more smoothly, but I have to admit, android does do a few things right as well.
I am thinking about upgrading tonight to an Android phone tonight because I am going to be forced into the new Verizon "Shared Family plan" if I don't upgrade tonight because this will be my first smartphone. I was thinking about getting a Galaxy S III can get the Samsung Nexus for $0.01 on Amazon so what would be a better option?