Smartphones and Tablets

A discussion thread for those things a lot of us can't seem to live without these days.

What kinds have you owned over the years? What are you using now? How do you feel about it? Any plans to switch hardware? Stuff like that.
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Comments

  • Sup bitches, witches, Haters, and trolls.
    i'm gonna be sad when my nexus 7 dies because google doesn't make a tablet with that form factor anymore
  • I have only ever used a tablet when forced by circumstance to do so.

    I have a smartphone but sometimes I wish I still had a dumbphone.
  • To start off: my current hardware!

    image

    Since a week or so after my last birthday in October I've had an HTC One M9, my first phone on Sprint and the third HTC phone I've owned in general.

    My feelings about it are mixed. I definitely have more breathing room for apps and games on it than my previous phone (a Moto X 2014) because of the 32GB of onboard storage space but HTC's skinned version of Android, Sense, has some questionable design choices, and overall the changes made to the stock Lollipop/Marshmallow experience don't do very much for me to really prefer it over my last phone beyond the space thing. If I had the choice, I would probably go for either a current Moto X Pure or one of the Nexus models to try to get that unaltered Android feel back, but I'm not in the position to be able to purchase my own hardware yet, so for now I will deal.
  • i had a Nexus 7, gave it to my mom, but it died one day

    alas

    i had an iPhone 5s, loved the design, didnt like iOS

    had a note 3, worst design of all time, but other then that is served me ok i guess (shit camera was frustrating), until earlier today
  • edited 2016-03-05 08:17:55
    I kinda don't mind the small storage space on my phone and my microSD card.

    It forces me to choose carefully what to clog it with.

    And it's ample enough for me to take tons of pictures anyway.

    I could also get myself a better microSD card but I haven't really felt the need yet.

    Fun fact: my microSD card's storage capacity is smaller than my phone's.
  • Calica said:

    i'm gonna be sad when my nexus 7 dies because google doesn't make a tablet with that form factor anymore

    I'm not sure how inherently moddable they are to get stock Android or Cyanogenmod/whatever ROM you want on them these days, but Amazon's Fire tablets seem to have that market covered fairly well. I like the most recent Fire HD 7's size and feel, and it's hella affordable so it's got that going for it.

  • edited 2016-03-05 08:19:21
    Android Kitkat (4.4) is better than Lollipop (4.5).  Or at least the way T-Mobile implemented it on this LG phone.

    Various options were disabled in the upgrade from Kitkat to Lollipop.  This include something so basic as being able to swipe down the on-screen keyboard to make it disappear.

    Good on my dad for never upgrading his phone.
  • I had Lollipop on my Moto X for most of my time with it, and my current phone shipped with it but just got updated to Marshmallow about 2 weeks or so ago. There was almost no change save for the inclusion of Now on Tap, which is the kind of feature that would be incredible if it worked better but feels really unfinished right now.
  • Sup bitches, witches, Haters, and trolls.
    Tre said:

    Calica said:

    i'm gonna be sad when my nexus 7 dies because google doesn't make a tablet with that form factor anymore

    I'm not sure how inherently moddable they are to get stock Android or Cyanogenmod/whatever ROM you want on them these days, but Amazon's Fire tablets seem to have that market covered fairly well. I like the most recent Fire HD 7's size and feel, and it's hella affordable so it's got that going for it.

    i think  centie has a fire of some kind and rooted it
  • I have an iPhone 4 with a cracked screen.
  • Why can't I uninstall the Youtube app?
  • edited 2016-03-05 15:43:32
    My phone is a Moto X Play (a phone which iirc doesn't exist or at least isn't called that in the US). I like it a lot, mostly because it has ludicrous battery life while not being a giant brick. Beforehand I had an S3, which was fine except that toward the end I got literally an hour of use out of it each day before the battery died.

    My tablet is a Galaxy Tab S. I'm using it to type this post. It's...okay. As I said in another thread, I wish I'd bought a cheap laptop instead.
  • “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    My mother and sister have iPads; my sister also has an Android phone. I have used both, and quite like the former, although the latter is has a very tiny virtual keyboard, which is a bit irksome.
  • Why can't I uninstall the Youtube app?


    It's a system app. Google wants as many people using their services as possible so most Android phones come with at least a few of them out of the box (YouTube, Chrome, Gmail).

    Comes with the territory, I suppose.

    My phone is a Moto X Play (a phone which iirc doesn't exist or at least isn't called that in the US). I like it a lot, mostly because it has ludicrous battery life while not being a giant brick. Beforehand I had an S3, which was fine except that toward the end I got literally an hour of use out of it each day before the battery died.


    My tablet is a Galaxy Tab S. I'm using it to type this post. It's...okay. As I said in another thread, I wish I'd bought a cheap laptop instead.

    The Moto X Play is available here, but it's exclusive to Verizon and got renamed the Droid Turbo 2 as a way of tying it in with their long running line of VZW-exclusive Droid smartphones.

    I was disappointed by thus, but not particularly surprised.
  • exciting life update, given the choice between:

    * spending 150 dollars and getting a new phone today

    * spending 5 dollars and getting the new phone on Tuesday

    my dad and i opted for the latter
  • w/r/t tablets, I've owned 2 personally and shared a Nook Color with my sister before that

    My first was the Kindle Fire HD 7 from 2012 (codenamed Tate), which I modded the crap out of to run Cyanogenmod KitKat and Lollipop (and occasionally a few other ROMs here and there) while I was using it. I spent a good 2 and a half years with it, from Christmas 2013 to August 2015. It served me well, especially for a gift I didn't actually ask for (my parents just got me one because I have a tendency to not ask for anything and my sister wanted one for herself).

    My current tablet, and the thing I'm typing on now, is an iPad Air 2 given to me as part of my scholarship to UK. I love it dearly; perhaps ironically, it's been more reliable as a life companion than the MacBook Pro I'd wanted for years.

    (Also, my dad and mom both have the iPad Mini 2, with my dad's serving as a replacement for his now broken iPad 2, which has been passed down to my kid sister.)
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Calica said:

    Tre said:

    Calica said:

    i'm gonna be sad when my nexus 7 dies because google doesn't make a tablet with that form factor anymore

    I'm not sure how inherently moddable they are to get stock Android or Cyanogenmod/whatever ROM you want on them these days, but Amazon's Fire tablets seem to have that market covered fairly well. I like the most recent Fire HD 7's size and feel, and it's hella affordable so it's got that going for it.

    i think  centie has a fire of some kind and rooted it
    I have the cheapest one, the 7" Fire that sells for about $50 new.

    It's not gonna blow your mind, performance-wise, but I was coming from a 2012 Nexus 7 and it's got comparable specs to that. It feels a little cheaper--it's thick and the screen isn't quite as nice--but it serves my needs well enough, until I save up for a nicer tablet.

    I put CyanogenMod 12.1 (Lollipop 5.1) on it, because that's nicer to use than the Amazon Fire OS.
  • image Wee yea erra chs hymmnos mea.
    I use a rooted gen 1 Moto G because money is hard. Don't have a tablet though.

    Also for some reason the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the thread title was My Favourite Things.

    Smartphones and tablets and classic Intel chips~
  • THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    Right now, I'm on a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and a Galaxy Tab S 10.5. I was on an HTC M7 for the longest time, but I agree about Sense's sometimes odd design choices, and I also had to live with a purple camera for far too long.
  • THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    I also kind of want to get a cheap tablet for the kitchen, since we're always needing to look up recipes when we're cooking or baking, and we lose printouts easily when a lot is going on.
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    I still have the Galaxy S3 I bought in 2013. It's running the stock TouchWiz bastardization of Android 4.4, which admittedly is not aging very well.

    It's rooted, of course...I've heard that's less and less necessary with newer Android versions, but it's nice functionality to have on Android 4. 

    Oh, and I enabled the encryption feature, because this FBI case with Apple has got me all paranoid. :P
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    I know this battle was lost years ago, but I'm still mildly peeved at Android 4's decision to move away from physical menu, back, and home buttons to on-screen controls.

    If I wanted a phone that forced me to use on-screen controls for basic navigation, I'd get an iPhone. :|
  • TreTre
    edited 2016-03-11 16:25:08
    image
    Gonna have to respectfully disagree with that in the application of all uses save for the implementation of fingerprint scanners (which, yes, I will admit is more useful when doubling as a home or power button).

    On-screen buttons are better for standardization because they're baked into the OS as is so it's less likely (though not impossible) for the OEMs to play around with them too much, whereas with hardware buttons there never was an agreed set of inputs or order to them (we're getting that even to this day, with Samsung continuing to be ~unique~ by putting their back button on the right side of their latest phones).

    Plus, less likelihood to screw up and press a key while doing something in a full screen app (videos, games).
  • I know this battle was lost years ago, but I'm still mildly peeved at Android 4's decision to move away from physical menu, back, and home buttons to on-screen controls.

    If I wanted a phone that forced me to use on-screen controls for basic navigation, I'd get an iPhone. :|

    and you were laughing at me when i lamented the absence of physical numpads and keyboards
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Tre said:

    On-screen buttons are better for standardization because they're baked into the OS as is so it's less likely (though not impossible) for the OEMs to play around with them too much, whereas with hardware buttons there never was an agreed set of inputs or order to them (we're getting that even to this day, with Samsung continuing to be ~unique~ by putting their back button on the right side of their latest phones).

    ...Ok, that makes sense. It's the same principle behind Google slowly moving apps like Calendar, Keyboard, Clock, etc. to the Play Store so people can get a consistent experience across devices even when OEMs won't get their act together.

    I know this battle was lost years ago, but I'm still mildly peeved at Android 4's decision to move away from physical menu, back, and home buttons to on-screen controls.

    If I wanted a phone that forced me to use on-screen controls for basic navigation, I'd get an iPhone. :|

    and you were laughing at me when i lamented the absence of physical numpads and keyboards
    As someone who's used both a smartphone with a QWERTY keypad and a smartphone with a touchscreen keyboard, I can definitely say the latter is far easier to type on...for me. Your results may vary, I suppose.



  • and you were laughing at me when i lamented the absence of physical numpads and keyboards

    As someone who's used both a smartphone with a QWERTY keypad and a smartphone with a touchscreen keyboard, I can definitely say the latter is far easier to type on...for me. Your results may vary, I suppose.
    Smartphone keyboard does not have haptic response telling me the borders of keys, and as a result typographical errors occur far, far more frequently.
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    I'm not gonna argue over it, but sure. I suppose if you actually hit every letter and don't use swipe-typing or autocorrect, you might have a harder time typing on a touchscreen. But why would you turn off autocorrect??
  • physical buttons are dumb as is autocorrect 50% of the time
  • like, it consistently fucks up any word I type that isn't incredibly common
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022

    like, it consistently fucks up any word I type that isn't incredibly common

    See, this is true, but I've found I have more trouble with it turned off than with it turned on...
  • THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    I remember using an early Android phone with a slider keyboard (the original Motorola Droid), and while it was nice having a hardware keyboard, the keys were tiny, and it was hard to type on with my fat fingers. For someone like me, having a full-size Bluetooth keyboard around would be a better solution if I'm going to be doing a lot of writing (and even then, it's not guaranteed to be typo-free).
  • Sup bitches, witches, Haters, and trolls.
    I kind of want to turn off autocorrect for when I'm tapping words rather than swiping them but that's because when I'm tapping words it's usually because I couldn't get the swipe to recognize them
  • I never swipe it bugs me
  • I'm not gonna argue over it, but sure. I suppose if you actually hit every letter and don't use swipe-typing or autocorrect, you might have a harder time typing on a touchscreen. But why would you turn off autocorrect??

    Bbecause I frequently need to type things that don't appear in a dictionary, or require unusual spellings.

    I tried swipe-typing but it was only good as a novelty.
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022

    I never swipe it bugs me

    See, my problem is I have BIG FAT THUMBS, which makes swiping much more convenient to me than trying to hit the tiny keys with my massive sausage thumbs.
  • My HTC Tilt2 and my Palm Centro both had physical keyboards. I can't really say I preferred that experience over having a touchscreen keyboard, especially considering how much those have improved over the years.

    I only use SwiftKey Flow (my keyboard app's Swype equivalent) occasionally, and often I do so while also using simple button presses (including during the typing of this sentence).
  • TreTre
    edited 2016-03-11 23:18:53
    image
    speaking of, question, what's your favorite mobile keyboard?

    I use SwiftKey almost exclusively on Android; it's a little buggy but nothing unmanageable, and I own a black and green theme for it so it looks very Tre. Google's standard keyboard is top-notch, however. (I may or may not switch now that Microsoft owns SwiftKey. We'll see.)

    On iOS I switch between SwiftKey and the standard Apple keyboard, largely because the OS kind of forces you to (third party keyboards can't type passwords or other sensitive fields like credit card numbers, and SwiftKey doesn't have an option to access Siri's voice typing, presumably because Apple intentionally withheld that from the other keyboards' permissions).
  • i use the standard google keyboard
  • I use Swiftkey but I haven't really tried other things. It was meaningfully better than Google's keyboard when I started using it but maybe that's not true anymore.
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    I use Swype. I feel like Google's keyboard is of comparable quality but I've become accustomed to many of the little tricks you can do with Swype, like swiping from the spacebar to the backspace key when you don't want a space between words.
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Hey Siri (yeah)

    Yeah there's something I want to say

    I feel your hands on my touchscreen

    Every time you tweet at me
  • oh, another disadvantage to touchscreens, at least capacitative ones

    i can't operate them with the other side of my pen
  • Is it a stylus pen or just a regular one?
  • Gotta love those workarounds.

    I feel like the industry ended up adopting capacitive screens as a whole because of that whole idea Steve Jobs said Apple had back in 2007 about styluses being a thing of the past; while that ultimately proved false (so much so that Apple itself makes one) it did pave the way for capabilities like multi-touch, and they also ended up being better for application in a mobile context because of their ability to register input without a sizable amount of force.
  • definitely loving my G4
  • Kewl. ^__^

    Definitely tempted to try to pick up a G5 at some point, or maybe another LG phone if their output continues to intrigue.

    If I had the chance to get any phone right now it'd probably be between the Nexus 6P, the G5 or the Galaxy S7 Edge, though realistically the latter two are the only real options because I'd be limited to things being offered by Sprint (which, unfortunately, Google forgoed this time around in lieu of just selling direct, which is a better strategy for the user but has the unfortunate side effect of cutting off nerds who still rely on their parents' phone plans).
  • sprint doesn't do sim cards which kinda sucks
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Question for whoever feels like answering: Do you use your tablet in a case?

    I tend to keep mine in its case when I'm taking it somewhere, but around the house I often take it out and use it bare...
  • We don't have a case for our tablet.
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