Mobile phones & tablets thread

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Originally Posted by CaptainRaiden

Well, of course. I guess it would help if Romania could mass produce a lot of daily use products themselves. Would help offset the cost of importing and make it easier for their citizens.:

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Ha! Why do you think we were admitted in EU?
As for the citizens, who do think of them ?

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Originally Posted by CaptainRaiden

You're making the mistake of guessing buying and eating habits of a country of 1.2 billion by their soap operas all pretty much produced in one state. :p

Nobody buys like that, at least I remember my mother didn't. ;) .

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Might be true but at the same time I think the target of the soap is the 1.2 billion not only a state. They should recognize themselves in the characters....

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Originally Posted by CaptainRaiden

I guess you're not aware of the context I mentioned those 100 euros in above. In short, my Galaxy S3 fell on the concrete and the front glass cracked. My wife called the authorized Samsung repair center in Bucharest, they quoted me 200 euros. I checked through my friends in Cardiff, UK and Helsinki, Finland for the exact same repair (front screen and digitizer replacement) from the authorized Samsung repair center, and were quoted 80 euros. I called up the authorized Samsung repair center in Mumbai, India, and was quoted 100 euros. What I don't understand is why are they asking me double price in Romania. :confused:

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My dost, supply and demand rules are different here :laugh:

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Originally Posted by gadjo_dilo

Ha! Why do you think we were admitted in EU?

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Fair enough. I wasn't aware of that.

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Originally Posted by gadjo_dilo

Might be true but at the same time I think the target of the soap is the 1.2 billion not only a state. They should recognize themselves in the characters....

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Not the 1.2 billion, but the Hindi speaking states, which are much lesser than that. Besides, by now you should know that TV and cinema exaggerate and sometimes understate a lot of things. Having been to the US, I can assure you that a very large percentage of American families don't look or behave like the ones in Hollywood movies. ;)

Another thing to keep in mind is that people from different households in India buy groceries differently. So, a poor family will buy half of what a middle class family would, and the rich families buy in bulk.

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Originally Posted by gadjo_dilo

My dost, supply and demand rules are different here :laugh:

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Can you please elaborate?

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Originally Posted by henners88

I live in Cardiff so you could always post it to me to get repaired if this city has a registered repair outlet :)

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Thanks for the offer, Henners. :) But I'll be flying down to Mumbai for Christmas and will get the phone repaired then.

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Originally Posted by CaptainRaiden

Can you please elaborate?

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Kinda hard as I don't have the words with me ( if you know what I mean ). :laugh:
The basic idea is that romanian capitalism is a bit different.
Just as our style of work is different. I mean we don't work traditionally, we aren’t lazy, on the contrary we are rather active but we are "resourceful" ( taking the pejorative meaning of this word ), we "do arrangements", we "run to".
As well, our businesses are based on " a da un tun " – „to give a gun” meaning to get a rapid gain mainly on illicit bases. Our business world is dominated by „smart” guys, „sly”guys and those who knows to „spin around”.
On these circumstances our merchants aren’t interested in selling a lot of stuff with a reasonable profit but to sell a few items with a big profit. Even the „sales” season is a farse, they increase the price a week before sales starts and then pretend they reduced the price.
Take a walk on Calea Victoriei and you’ll see a lot of shops with no clients. What’s the reason to pay a prohibitive rent when your activity is low?

Well, it's frustrating.

And just to make it clear, I'm not a cheap-ass or enjoying keeping my phone with the front screen cracked. I will just not pay double the amount out of principle, because I will not make the swindlers richer. Besides I'm not getting anything extra out of it.

In other news:

Samsung Galaxy S4 release date, news and rumours | News | TechRadar

I guess I'm happy with my S3 for another few years for now. The S4 so far seems to have things I'm not really interested in. Edge to edge display is not my thing, neither is flexible display. A 5 inch 1080p display would probably be too much for a phone, unless they can come up with a battery double the capacity of the 2100 mAh one in the S3.

As far as on the processing side, they're talking about an octo core chip! :eek: Now that IMO is just too much, as the quad core processors and current smartphone GPUs have all bases covered for now, and I don't see any blazing new graphic intensive games for Android or super HD movies being played on the phone right now or over the next two years. They're also talking about putting in a mini projector, which on a phone sounds gimmicky.

So well, based on the market right now and the tech forecast, Galaxy S3, HTC One X and iPhone 5 users can breathe a sigh of relief that their tech won't be outdated for quite a while. ;)

The Samsung S3 is already ahead of the iPhone 5 in many ways, the S4 has the potential to blow it away completely. Especially if the 5S/6 isn't out until late next year.

I've read parts of that article and it sounds more like wishful thinking than anything else.

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Originally Posted by Big Ben

I've read parts of that article and it sounds more like wishful thinking than anything else.

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While I admit an octo core chip would be an overkill and unlikely as of now, the rest of the rumored stuff is already present in some other phones. Edge to edge for example in Motorola's Razer max, Sony Odin will have a 5 inch 1080p display, and Samsung has patented and has been working on flexible displays and thinner storage for quite a while now.

IMO the Galaxy S4 will have a higher frequency quad core (possibly six core) processor with LTE, NFC, wireless charging, around 2 GB RAM, the usual storage, possibly going up to 128 GB even with a microSD slot, and some extra Samsung specific features like in the S3. These would be more realistic upgrades to the current S3.

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Originally Posted by henners88

To be honest my iPhone 5 is plenty powerful enough for most things people do on a smartphone. Even if I had an S3 or an S4 I'd still only be sending emails, surfing the net, looking at facebook, twitter, youtube, tapatalk, texting and calling people, pictures video's etc etc. It does all those things fast and has never frozen on me in the 2 or so months I have been using it. On top of that its a bloody nice looking phone. I think its been proven that spec means diddly squat as long as you are happy with your device and it does everything you have bought it to do.. That goes for any phone model people choose :)

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Yes, true, but the idea of the iPhone has always been the best phone money can buy, that is no longer the case.

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Originally Posted by henners88

The S3 is an excellent phone and I'm surprised the S4 is being announced so soon. I suppose by the time it comes out it'll nearly be a year but you'd think Samsung would take note of how many people bought the S3 and are likely to be on 24 month contracts. Then again with it being announced Apple have dominated the market and overtaken Android of late with the release of the iPhone 5, its perhaps needed. How did Apple regain so much of the market? Wasn't their market share 37 or 38% back in the summer? That's massive growth for a phone many dubbed as a disappointment.

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I don't see why it's a big surprise. Apple have done yearly announcements for years now.

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Originally Posted by henners88

Samsung you mean? Or was that in relation to the market growth?

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No I mean Apple. They do yearly announcements, I don't see why it should be a surprise when Samsung do the same.

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Originally Posted by CaptainRaiden

In other news:

Samsung Galaxy S4 release date, news and rumours | News | TechRadar

I guess I'm happy with my S3 for another few years for now. The S4 so far seems to have things I'm not really interested in. Edge to edge display is not my thing, neither is flexible display. A 5 inch 1080p display would probably be too much for a phone, unless they can come up with a battery double the capacity of the 2100 mAh one in the S3.

As far as on the processing side, they're talking about an octo core chip! :eek: Now that IMO is just too much, as the quad core processors and current smartphone GPUs have all bases covered for now, and I don't see any blazing new graphic intensive games for Android or super HD movies being played on the phone right now or over the next two years. They're also talking about putting in a mini projector, which on a phone sounds gimmicky.

So well, based on the market right now and the tech forecast, Galaxy S3, HTC One X and iPhone 5 users can breathe a sigh of relief that their tech won't be outdated for quite a while. ;)

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With the caveat that the article is based on rumours, this could be the first time I've upgraded before my contract runs out. I'm finding that I'm already pushing my S3 to its limit and beginning to find its limitations - you don't realise that you'll use some features until you get the phone in your hand. I'm actually quite excited about the idea of a full-HD screen: I'm shooting videos of the little'un in 1080 and editing them on the handset, which is pushing the screen and the processor quite a bit, not to mention the potential for taking on the likes of the Wii U for portable gamine. I can't see the point of a projector, the ones built into other phones are utterly useless and the handset can already "talk" to projectors via HDMI or DNLA.

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Originally Posted by henners88

My advice would be to get a decent camcorder Dave. They are only babies for a very short time and you want footage of the best quality to view in years to come and not filmed on a phone with a crap lens (good for a phone no doubt). I know phones are more convenient but in my experience you end up regretting it. I went to Belgium last month and used my phone for pictures a little more than I intended. What I have are some very nice photo's for Facebook, but not pictures I could edit and print out. The sensor on most top end smartphones brags so many megapixels but its the glass that captures the quality. I look at some of the pictures I took and wish I had taken the time to pull my DSLR out of my bag. :\

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Sometimes the best camera is the one you have with you. Sorry, rewind: CLICHÉ KLAXON! Anyway, I pretty much always have my phone for those unexpected moments, whereas I tend to only take my SLR to special occasions. Yes my SLR obviously trumps the phone's camera, but the convenience wins far more often. The same would apply with a dedicated camcorder to the point where I doubt I could justify the cost, you'd be looking at the wrong side of 500 quid to make it a worthwhile leap in quality - the footage taken with my S3 is surprisingly good provided there's reasonable light (admittedly it's damn near hopeless in poor light). Then factor in the lack of features on a camcorder - I'd miss the ability to edit down clips to email, or to stream wirelessly to a telly.

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Originally Posted by CaptainRaiden

Thanks for the offer, Henners. :) But I'll be flying down to Mumbai for Christmas and will get the phone repaired then.

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Wouldn't it be cheaper to get a new phone in Mumbai?

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Originally Posted by Mark

The Samsung S3 is already ahead of the iPhone 5 in many ways, the S4 has the potential to blow it away completely. Especially if the 5S/6 isn't out until late next year.

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I have acquired a Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus s7500, and we have finally worked out last night how to answer a call.

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Originally Posted by Valve Bounce

I have acquired a Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus s7500, and we have finally worked out last night how to answer a call.

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Is it one of these modern phones that can do everything except the phone part?

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Originally Posted by BleAivano

Is it one of these modern phones that can do everything except the phone part?

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Toanswer a call, I have to tap on the green phone then drag it sideways to the edge.
But yeah! it will do a lot, but I havn't figured out how to do it yet. :laugh:

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Originally Posted by henners88

To be honest my iPhone 5 is plenty powerful enough for most things people do on a smartphone. Even if I had an S3 or an S4 I'd still only be sending emails, surfing the net, looking at facebook, twitter, youtube, tapatalk, texting and calling people, pictures video's etc etc. It does all those things fast and has never frozen on me in the 2 or so months I have been using it. On top of that its a bloody nice looking phone. I think its been proven that spec means diddly squat as long as you are happy with your device and it does everything you have bought it to do.. That goes for any phone model people choose :)

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Maybe not for you henners, but for a lot of other people, specs do matter. Many people do a lot of hardware intensive stuff on their phones too. Smartphones have transitioned nicely into being used as potent handheld gaming devices, designing and editing tools as well. Phone companies won't be displaying benchmark testing results or even show specs at all if that weren't the case. Samsung, HTC and now Sony are battling hard in the specs arena for a reason. Apple was pretty much forced to raise the specs dramatically for the iPhone 5 under public scrutiny.

For the things you do with your smartphone, as you mentioned above, you don't need an iPhone 5. :D An iPhone 4 or a Galaxy S would be more than enough. ;)

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Originally Posted by Valve Bounce

Wouldn't it be cheaper to get a new phone in Mumbai?

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Umm, no. Since I already have a Galaxy S3 (costs about $600), I'm not looking for a newer phone. Its screen is cracked, and since I go home for Christmas, would make sense to get it repaired for less.

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Originally Posted by Dave B

With the caveat that the article is based on rumours, this could be the first time I've upgraded before my contract runs out. I'm finding that I'm already pushing my S3 to its limit and beginning to find its limitations - you don't realise that you'll use some features until you get the phone in your hand. I'm actually quite excited about the idea of a full-HD screen: I'm shooting videos of the little'un in 1080 and editing them on the handset, which is pushing the screen and the processor quite a bit, not to mention the potential for taking on the likes of the Wii U for portable gamine. I can't see the point of a projector, the ones built into other phones are utterly useless and the handset can already "talk" to projectors via HDMI or DNLA.

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I'll be honest I haven't done any video editing on the S3 yet. I'm more comfortable with Adobe Premiere on the PC for that. But I can see your point. The thing is for an octo core chip + a 5 inch 1080p screen, the battery would have to be gigantic, even bigger than the one Motorola crammed into their phone. Still I don't see it lasting very long.

I cycle around 10 of my favorite 720p movies + music on my 64 gig card, and some top of the line games installed on the phone memory, for a nice little entertainment unit during commute or just relaxing. Some games like Dead Trigger on full graphics do push the S3 to its limits, but apart from that it seems to handle things fine, and I doubt I'll be upgrading to the S4. BUT only time will tell. :p

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Originally Posted by henners88

It would have been but the iPhone 5 is a nicer looking phone and I wanted the most up to date iPhone.

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So, you did buy the phone for more than just basic smartphone functions. Same way, some people buy other flagships because it offers kickass hardware for things they wanna do on top of basic smartphone functions. There's a market for both types of consumers, and whether the S4 will blow the current flagships out of the water is relevant to lots of folks.

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Originally Posted by henners88

I probably don't push the phone to its full capabilities but very few people I know do in reality. I don't play games on it, I certainly don't need it for video editing or designing anything on.

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You do realize that for the iPhone 5, Apple upped the hardware to appeal to handheld gamers and widened the screen to handle HD movies better, right?

For everything else, like I said, the older iPhone 4 is more than enough.

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Originally Posted by henners88

I am also aware of that too, I own one. It is nice to watch the odd video on, I wouldn't wish to watch a full movie on it though. I am aware some people use their phones for this purpose and that's all gravy.

The iPhone 4 does all the things I presently do on an iPhone and my old HTC did all the things I presently need it to do. I didn't see the point in upgrading to a phone older than my previous one when there is a brand new flagship of the brand out at the moment. I liked the iPhone so I bought it. I still like it and not only does it do all the things I am used to doing, but its also a lot more pleasurable to use. I haven't really needed to look back :)

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Then discussions around specs or performance really shouldn't bother you. ;)

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Originally Posted by henners88

They only bother me when I am told something I own is a load of crap based on something someone else feels is important.

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I don't think anybody here said the iPhone 5 is a piece of crap TBH.

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Originally Posted by henners88

A figure of speech. The general tone of this thread at times has not been very complimentary, so we can draw our own conclusions on that or apply our own takes on the terminology.

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I think Mark was only stating the S3 is ahead of the iPhone 5 in some ways, which is a fact. And the S4 will most likely blow all current flagships out of the water, very likely a fact. All purely based on hardware specs. Nobody disputed the usability or the aesthetics of any current smartphone.

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Originally Posted by henners88

The rest of my post stands though in relation to telling each other what should and not not bother us.

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Great! Now we're in the same boat! :p

OT, but a recent annoyance. Apple sell their Quicktime Pro media player for $30 and it doesn't have a freaking playlist feature.

VLC player gives it for free.

Bloody crooks Apple are. :mad:

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Originally Posted by henners88

I don't use Quicktime as I've always thought it was crap. I've used VLC since the early part of last decade.

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I use VLC for everything else myself.

I was trying to play some .MOV videos, which were encoded weirdly and getting stuck in VLC, so I thought Quicktime would play it better. These are small 2-3 minutes videos (tutorials for a software I'm learning) I'm watching on my TV through the PC, and lots of them, and so I have to get up every few minutes to open a new one.

I thought maybe pro would have a playlist feature, but a quick Google search said otherwise. Thank goodness I didn't fall for that trap.

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Originally Posted by CaptainRaiden

I don't think anybody here said the iPhone 5 is a piece of crap TBH.

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My boss says that it is cos he's got one.

I'm sort of considering getting new hardware and I'm not sure where to go. I'm tempted to get a stupidly expensive big screen phone to replace my trusty old Nokia. Or I keep the thing for when outside the house and get a 7" tablet for indoor use.

A question to those who have used these things, what kind of usage do you get with these devices? Especially comparing big phone vs small tablet?

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Originally Posted by janneppi

A question to those who have used these things, what kind of usage do you get with these devices? Especially comparing big phone vs small tablet?

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As someone with a 4.8" phone screen and a 7" tablet, I can tell you that in my case the tablet tends to sit gathering dust while the phone gets a right hammering. For anything vaguely productive I use a laptop as you simply can't beat a proper keyboard for typing, but the phone gets used for casual gaming, social media, 80% of my browsing, a huge amount of pics and video, and for adding things to my shopping order as and when I think of them. It's always on me, so becomes my go-to device for most tasks.

Personally I'd get the biggest screen phone you feel comfortable with and forget a tablet, but as ever only you can make that decision. Some people can't get on with huge touchscreens, others find the tiny-weeny iPhone style screens a bit quaint. If I was buying a phone today I'd probably go for a Galaxy Note 2 or a Nexus 4.

As ever, go and play with then in stores or borrow your friends' devices, and make your own decision based on your needs :)

Thanks for the opinion Dave. That's in line with what friend of mine advised.

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Originally Posted by Dave B

As ever, go and play with then in stores or borrow your friends' devices, and make your own decision based on your needs :)

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To be honest, I'll probably do what others have done, pick a phone on the way it looks and then move my goalposts to suit it best and then argue passionately about how it's best for my needs and the things others have chosen are scheiße.

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Originally Posted by janneppi

I'm sort of considering getting new hardware and I'm not sure where to go. I'm tempted to get a stupidly expensive big screen phone to replace my trusty old Nokia. Or I keep the thing for when outside the house and get a 7" tablet for indoor use.

A question to those who have used these things, what kind of usage do you get with these devices? Especially comparing big phone vs small tablet?

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The smartphone will fit in your jeans pocket while the tablet won't. I haven't found one good use of a tablet in my experience. I use the laptop or a PC for anything that my smartphone can't do. More than that, I guess this flowchart below should help: :p

http://edublog.net/wp/wp-content/upl..._flowchart.jpg

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Originally Posted by Mark

My boss says that it is cos he's got one.

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Oh no, what have you done! Tell your boss to look out for a guy called henners with a crowbar. :D

Hell hath no fury like a henners scorned. :p

Hi Guys,

I just happened onto this website where I have ordered a sleeveless jacket for around $30 including shipping.Then I started researching this website and found this stock of mobile phones, some of which I have never heard of. SmartPhone Cell Phone, Mobile Cell Phones, Smart Phone including this one: Huawei U8836D/G500 Pro Android OS 4.0 4.3'' Dual Core MTK6577 1GB RAM GPS WIFI 3G Phone - DinoDirect.com

and I wonder what you guys think.

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Originally Posted by Valve Bounce

Hi Guys,

I just happened onto this website where I have ordered a sleeveless jacket for around $30 including shipping.Then I started researching this website and found this stock of mobile phones, some of which I have never heard of. SmartPhone Cell Phone, Mobile Cell Phones, Smart Phone including this one: Huawei U8836D/G500 Pro Android OS 4.0 4.3'' Dual Core MTK6577 1GB RAM GPS WIFI 3G Phone - DinoDirect.com

and I wonder what you guys think.

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AT first glance it looks like the Chinese no-names you get on eBay for a similar price, but wrapped up in a shiny template website. I've never heard of the retailer so immediately I'd be on guard.

Then five seconds on Google brings up tons of complaints (they've taken my money, never got the goods kind of thing), for example this site:
17 Complaints and Reviews about DinoDirect

Personally I'd avoid them like the proverbial. If you feel you really must use them, do you have an equivalent of the Consumer Credit Act? In the UK, in the case of payments over £100 on a credit (not debit) card, the card issuer is jointly liable in the event of an unfulfilled order.

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Originally Posted by janneppi

To be honest, I'll probably do what others have done, pick a phone on the way it looks and then move my goalposts to suit it best and then argue passionately about how it's best for my needs and the things others have chosen are scheiße.

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Nicely done :laugh: :up:

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Originally Posted by Dave B

AT first glance it looks like the Chinese no-names you get on eBay for a similar price, but wrapped up in a shiny template website. I've never heard of the retailer so immediately I'd be on guard.

Then five seconds on Google brings up tons of complaints (they've taken my money, never got the goods kind of thing), for example this site:
17 Complaints and Reviews about DinoDirect

Personally I'd avoid them like the proverbial. If you feel you really must use them, do you have an equivalent of the Consumer Credit Act? In the UK, in the case of payments over £100 on a credit (not debit) card, the card issuer is jointly liable in the event of an unfulfilled order.

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Damn!! I wish I checked first. I only bought a sleeveless jacket for $30 and paid for it with Paypal. Is there some safety arrangement with Paypal if I don't receive what I bought? I just hopeI am not $30 poorer but $30 wiser :(

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Originally Posted by gadjo_dilo

Kinda hard as I don't have the words with me ( if you know what I mean ). :laugh:
The basic idea is that romanian capitalism is a bit different.
Just as our style of work is different. I mean we don't work traditionally, we aren’t lazy, on the contrary we are rather active but we are "resourceful" ( taking the pejorative meaning of this word ), we "do arrangements", we "run to".
As well, our businesses are based on " a da un tun " – „to give a gun” meaning to get a rapid gain mainly on illicit bases. Our business world is dominated by „smart” guys, „sly”guys and those who knows to „spin around”.
On these circumstances our merchants aren’t interested in selling a lot of stuff with a reasonable profit but to sell a few items with a big profit. Even the „sales” season is a farse, they increase the price a week before sales starts and then pretend they reduced the price.
Take a walk on Calea Victoriei and you’ll see a lot of shops with no clients. What’s the reason to pay a prohibitive rent when your activity is low?

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We rarely agree but on this one you're 100% right.

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Originally Posted by CaptainRaiden

I don't think anybody here said the iPhone 5 is a piece of crap TBH.

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The iPhone 5 is an overpriced piece of crap! There you have it. :p

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Originally Posted by janneppi

To be honest, I'll probably do what others have done, pick a phone on the way it looks and then move my goalposts to suit it best and then argue passionately about how it's best for my needs and the things others have chosen are scheiße.

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Best post in this thread! Sums it up pretty well too! :up: ;)