Mobile phone thread

[Techno Natch]

I've just got the Oneplus 3 yesterday. Loving it so far, it's been a while since I had a decent phone and my Motog 3 had memory issues. Has some neat touches with shortcuts and the quick charge is pretty good but that seems to be standard on most phones now. Not had a chance to put it but seems a snip at £330.

 

[Pagnell]

The Note series were pretty unique in the S-Pen feature, I can't think of a device which compares, or certainly not a new one. You could import a Note 5, which is based upon Galaxy S6 hardware.

Go for an S7 Edge would be my advice. Been out for around over 6 months now so good deals to be had and there is nothing out there at the moment that is better. Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL devices are the main competition but they're ridiculously expensive and offer little in terms of advantage. Faster Android updates is the only thing I can think of. No IP68 and no memory expansion. In terms of other Android devices none of Sony, HTC or LG offer devices that competes for me in this generation.

 

[Son of Cod]

I've just got the Oneplus 3 yesterday. Loving it so far, it's been a while since I had a decent phone and my Motog 3 had memory issues. Has some neat touches with shortcuts and the quick charge is pretty good but that seems to be standard on most phones now. Not had a chance to put it but seems a snip at £330.

Will have a look at these, can't get them in Korea so I have a bit of catching up to do when I'm back. My choice has pretty much been Samsung, LG or Apple for the last 5 years.

The Note series were pretty unique in the S-Pen feature, I can't think of a device which compares, or certainly not a new one. You could import a Note 5, which is based upon Galaxy S6 hardware.

Go for an S7 Edge would be my advice. Been out for around over 6 months now so good deals to be had and there is nothing out there at the moment that is better. Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL devices are the main competition but they're ridiculously expensive and offer little in terms of advantage. Faster Android updates is the only thing I can think of. No IP68 and no memory expansion. In terms of other Android devices none of Sony, HTC or LG offer devices that competes for me in this generation.

That's what I was afraid of. I love my Note 3, but it's time to change. Really don't think I can go down in screen size though, as I read a lot of comics and books on my phone. Do you know much about these Chinese ones that were supposed to start worrying Apple and Samsung? Xiaomi, Lenovo, etc. Do they do anything Notesque? Can you even get them in the UK from established phone shops/sites?

 

[Pagnell]

That's what I was afraid of. I love my Note 3, but it's time to change. Really don't think I can go down in screen size though, as I read a lot of comics and books on my phone. Do you know much about these Chinese ones that were supposed to start worrying Apple and Samsung? Xiaomi, Lenovo, etc. Do they do anything Notesque? Can you even get them in the UK from established phone shops/sites?

The Note 3 is 5.7" and the S7 Edge is 5.5". My last phone was a Note 3 and without putting them side by side I couldn't notice the difference. I do miss the S-Pen though. Don't worry about the physical size though, it's a non-issue.

I don't know of a new phone that has a stylus unfortunately.

 

[Techno Natch]

So what apps and games are looking good at the moment?

 

[Son of Cod]

Got the S7 Edge today. All good so far, however I have one issue that I really want to solve. The particular type of Korean keyboard that I'm used to (Naratgul) is not available on the Samsung keyboard. I like the stock keyboard, but I really can't be arsed to have to get used to a different way of typing Korean. Pretty sure this is not possible, but I'm gonna ask anyway...is there anyway to copy the Naratgul style keyboard off my Note 3 and install onto my S7 Edge?! Failing that, I'll have to find a different keyboard that has it. Swift Key doesn't, anyone have any other good keyboard recommendations?

Got my wife the iPhone 7 too and the guy who put the protective film on it, got a bit of lint trapped under it and it's made a little air bubble around. He claimed that the lint is going to move itself across the phone, which I'm 99% sure is complete bullshit. How would that be possible? He used the phrase "smart screen" when explaining this and I called him up on it but he seemed adamant and I didn't want to push too hard incase I was wrong so I just let it slide. He also fucked up my protective film, I think. Mine is coming away down about a third of one of the edges and on two of the corners but he said if I keep pushing them back down then they'll eventually stay down.

 

[G.B]

Got the S7 Edge today. All good so far, however I have one issue that I really want to solve. The particular type of Korean keyboard that I'm used to (Naratgul) is not available on the Samsung keyboard. I like the stock keyboard, but I really can't be arsed to have to get used to a different way of typing Korean. Pretty sure this is not possible, but I'm gonna ask anyway...is there anyway to copy the Naratgul style keyboard off my Note 3 and install onto my S7 Edge?! Failing that, I'll have to find a different keyboard that has it. Swift Key doesn't, anyone have any other good keyboard recommendations?

swype keyboard has it. there's a trial version in the play store if you want to try it... 78 pence for the full version.

 

[Destruction]

I've had my iphone7 a few weeks now. It's true what they say, people do look at you differently. You can see the look of awe in their eyes.

Worth every penny of the £65 a month.

 

[Son of Cod]

swype keyboard has it. there's a trial version in the play store if you want to try it... 78 pence for the full version.

The trial version of Swype has the standard QWERTY Korean keyboard, but I can't see the Naratgul style keyboard. Are you sure it definitely has it it? There are various different Korean keyboards that vary with regards to how you change characters. If you look in the language settings, next to English there's a keyboard icon. If you click that, you can switch between QWERTY and AZERTY, but there is no such icon for Korean to change the input.

 

[G.B]

The trial version of Swype has the standard QWERTY Korean keyboard, but I can't see the Naratgul style keyboard. Are you sure it definitely has it it? There are various different Korean keyboards that vary with regards to how you change characters. If you look in the language settings, next to English there's a keyboard icon. If you click that, you can switch between QWERTY and AZERTY, but there is no such icon for Korean to change the input.

I don't have it myself but it says on the play store under "what's new"...

v2.2.1
Korean keyboards – CJI+, Naratgul & Sky

Maybe it's just not in the trial version?

 

[Son of Cod]

I don't have it myself but it says on the play store under "what's new"...

v2.2.1
Korean keyboards – CJI+, Naratgul & Sky

Maybe it's just not in the trial version?

Ah yeah, will get that when my SIM activates then. Cheers!

 

[G.B]

Nay botha marra.

 

[Pagnell]

Nice purchase Cod. What colour did you get? The best one is the silver for me, looks fantastic but the bastards didn't do it when I got mine on the release date so I went for the black. I like the black though, and the fact that, unlike previous Samsung black phones, it's complete black including the home button surround and earpiece. My wife has the gold one, far too bling for my liking.

The Nougat update is coming out soon, which will give the phone Samsung's new Grace UI like the Note 7 has (albeit without the exploding batteries). I've got a Note 7 rom running on my S7 Edge and it's lovely, with lots of improvements. The main one is that AOD is now actually worth using because third party notifications are supported. Was bloody annoying on the original S7 stock rom that only SMS and phone calls notifications were supported, with the likes of Whatsapp being ignored.

How are you viewing the small difference in screen size from the Note 3?

 

[Pagnell]

Got my wife the iPhone 7 too and the guy who put the protective film on it, got a bit of lint trapped under it and it's made a little air bubble around. He claimed that the lint is going to move itself across the phone, which I'm 99% sure is complete bullshit. How would that be possible? He used the phrase "smart screen" when explaining this and I called him up on it but he seemed adamant and I didn't want to push too hard incase I was wrong so I just let it slide. He also fucked up my protective film, I think. Mine is coming away down about a third of one of the edges and on two of the corners but he said if I keep pushing them back down then they'll eventually stay down.

He's full of shit, your wife will either have to make do or you can take it off, clean and reapply. New generation screen protectors allow air to slowly penetrate the surface so small bubbles disappear but not solid objects, and it certainly won't move.

Unfortunately, the only disadvantage I've come across with an edge screen is protectors. But again, he's full of shit because once it starts curling or coming away on the edge it will never settle. Buy the right one and put it on properly though and they will stay. It sounds like he's simply not very good at doing it.

 

[Son of Cod]

Nice purchase Cod. What colour did you get? The best one is the silver for me, looks fantastic but the bastards didn't do it when I got mine on the release date so I went for the black. I like the black though, and the fact that, unlike previous Samsung black phones, it's complete black including the home button surround and earpiece. My wife has the gold one, far too bling for my liking.

The Nougat update is coming out soon, which will give the phone Samsung's new Grace UI like the Note 7 has (albeit without the exploding batteries). I've got a Note 7 rom running on my S7 Edge and it's lovely, with lots of improvements. The main one is that AOD is now actually worth using because third party notifications are supported. Was bloody annoying on the original S7 stock rom that only SMS and phone calls notifications were supported, with the likes of Whatsapp being ignored.

How are you viewing the small difference in screen size from the Note 3?

Sorry, forgot to reply to this before. I also got black. Was a toss up between the silver and black as well, but I preferred the black. The gold is definitely too bling for me.

Thinking more about actually rooting this time, but not sure if I'll actually need it all that much.

I remember ages ago you recommended an app that you could put commands into, such as when you put your earphones in music player would start. I used it on my old phone for a bit, but can't remember the name. Does it ring any bells for you?

Also, are you using the stock keyboard? I've been getting some strange autocorrects. Like, "if" being corrected to "in" or "is". Annoying as well that when you hit a predicted text word that it doesn't insert a space after it and you have to hit the spacebar yourself. Any idea if this can be altered? Looked in the settings but doesn't seem like it's there.

 

[Pagnell]

Sorry, forgot to reply to this before. I also got black. Was a toss up between the silver and black as well, but I preferred the black. The gold is definitely too bling for me.

Thinking more about actually rooting this time, but not sure if I'll actually need it all that much.

I remember ages ago you recommended an app that you could put commands into, such as when you put your earphones in music player would start. I used it on my old phone for a bit, but can't remember the name. Does it ring any bells for you?

Also, are you using the stock keyboard? I've been getting some strange autocorrects. Like, "if" being corrected to "in" or "is". Annoying as well that when you hit a predicted text word that it doesn't insert a space after it and you have to hit the spacebar yourself. Any idea if this can be altered? Looked in the settings but doesn't seem like it's there.

The app you're talking about is AutomateIt. It's very good and works on an easy to use UI. If you want more control you can go for Tasker instead which has almost limiless ability but is far harder to use.

As for rooting I will always do it if it's supported on a phone, and will likely avoid buying a phone if rooting is difficult or unlikely to happen (Blackberry Android devices for example). I use too many things that require root, the main ones being full CPU/GPU frequency control, a proper ip table firewall and Xposed framework (this is required for my most important app, Xprivacy). It also allows full host file adblocking rather than having to do it via the VPN service constantly running in the background.

With Samsung phones and rooting there are now drawbacks you need to be aware of. I'm sure you already knew about the Knox flag which is irreversibly tripped (via an e-fuse) if you install anything unsigned on a Samsung device, which includes any form of rooting, custom recovery or custom kernel. It's been around for over 3 years. However, up until recently Samsung would still repair devices that had a tripped Knox flag. They're now refusing warranty repairs on tripped phones from what I've read. It's a chance I'm willing to take as they're very reliable devices, but some people would rather avoid it.

I avoid Samsung's stock keyboard like the plague, it's shit. I'm using a hacked version of Google's keyboard with a number row added. There are lots of themes too. I've been on this for years with no issues. Look for the 123 series, that's the one with the number row.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2387785

It's an older version but the new Google keyboard is crap, with annoying childish smileys everywhere that can't be turned off.

 

[Pagnell]

A pink vertical line has appeared down the right hand side of my phone screen - a common problem on the S7 and S7 Edge I've read due to a solder point at the top of the LCD loosening, this is backed up by the line disappearing when pressure is applied just below the earpiece. Pisser. Hoping they fix it but I suspect my tripped Knox flag will come back to bite me on the arse.

I will never buy another Samsung if the only way of rooting is to lose your warranty. Let's see how they deal with this.

 

[blade1889]

My IPhone has stopped syncing with my windows laptop...synced fine until a couple of weeks ago. Now it charges and can download photos from home to laptop but ITunes doesn't recognise it. Any suggestions?

 

[G-Dragon]

Thinking of buying MOTO G4 (2016). Anyone tried it?

 

[Pagnell]

A pink vertical line has appeared down the right hand side of my phone screen - a common problem on the S7 and S7 Edge I've read due to a solder point at the top of the LCD loosening, this is backed up by the line disappearing when pressure is applied just below the earpiece. Pisser. Hoping they fix it but I suspect my tripped Knox flag will come back to bite me on the arse.

I will never buy another Samsung if the only way of rooting is to lose your warranty. Let's see how they deal with this.

I know everyone is on tenterhooks waiting for the update of this, and it's good news. I took it to the local Vodafone shop and they sent it off to their own repair service which doesn't involve Samsung. And clearly Vodafone aren't aware of the Knox flag, or don't care if it's tripped. They tried to repair the phone and couldn't, so they sent me a brand new S7 Edge. Result.

 

[Techno Natch]

Any ideas on how I can stop my browser constantly sending me to an app when I want to access certain sites. For example soundcloud and YouTube as this makes it a Bitch when trying to share links.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

I know everyone is on tenterhooks waiting for the update of this, and it's good news. I took it to the local Vodafone shop and they sent it off to their own repair service which doesn't involve Samsung. And clearly Vodafone aren't aware of the Knox flag, or don't care if it's tripped. They tried to repair the phone and couldn't, so they sent me a brand new S7 Edge. Result.

 

[Big Bird]

About to get the S7 Edge with unlimited and 8GB of data for £35 a month. Only drawback is it's on 3, a network I've not used before.

Was actually going to settle on the S6 Edge which is only £30 a month but seems silly not to go for the better phone for a fivers difference.

 

[Stagat]

Best to forget about the £30 S6 when deciding on the £35 S7 bud. Suspect it's just overpriced to make you think 'may as well get the expensive one'.

If you're happy with the deal when you consider it in isolation then all good. Careful of the anchoring going on though.

 

[Techno Natch]

About to get the S7 Edge with unlimited and 8GB of data for £35 a month. Only drawback is it's on 3, a network I've not used before.

Was actually going to settle on the S6 Edge which is only £30 a month but seems silly not to go for the better phone for a fivers difference.

That's an extra £120 over the space of two years so you have to weigh up if it's really worth it. Sounds like a decent deal though and plenty of data. Think 3 are pretty decent these days on the whole...

 

[Big Bird]

Cheers for the advice guys, always appreciated by me when it comes to phones. Fallen into a few silly contracts like being desperate to upgrade to my current phone (HTC M8) and paying 38.50 a month for 1 gig of data! Think this is why the S7 Edge is appealing. Will be paying slightly less for a better phone and a load more data. My contract has now expired too so I'm free to explore all options.

 

[Luke Imp]

I currently have an iPhone 5, and over the last 4-6 weeks I seem to have been, what I think, is problems with the battery.

Basically, the charge doesn't seem to be holding and/or the battery percentage indicator/icon appears to be incorrect. There are some occasions where my battery will show at, say, 68% having been off charge for 2 hours, then turns itself off as though it's run out of battery. I'll plug it into the mains, it'll re-start fine and the battery icon will say 71% or something i.e. very similar percentage charge to when it turned itself off.

On other occasions, I'll get about an hour of use out of it at 1%. Also, when the charge it getting low, I can plug it in, but it'll jump from say 20% up to 70%.

There's no consistency within the charge icon/indicator or the amount of use I can get out of it, which isn't ideal when I'm out and about.

Anyone else had similar issues previously?

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

I currently have an iPhone 5, and over the last 4-6 weeks I seem to have been, what I think, is problems with the battery.

Basically, the charge doesn't seem to be holding and/or the battery percentage indicator/icon appears to be incorrect. There are some occasions where my battery will show at, say, 68% having been off charge for 2 hours, then turns itself off as though it's run out of battery. I'll plug it into the mains, it'll re-start fine and the battery icon will say 71% or something i.e. very similar percentage charge to when it turned itself off.

On other occasions, I'll get about an hour of use out of it at 1%. Also, when the charge it getting low, I can plug it in, but it'll jump from say 20% up to 70%.

There's no consistency within the charge icon/indicator or the amount of use I can get out of it, which isn't ideal when I'm out and about.

Anyone else had similar issues previously?

Every iPhone user has surely had that problem! It's the reason i don't have an iPhone anymore and will probably never touch one ever again, the battery is actually horrible, from my experience from 6 months onwards it's not suitable for using on a day out. (iPods are good though).

My workaround for this before I said fuck it was:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/5s-Portabl...1857704&sr=8-1&keywords=iphone+5+charger+case

That bad boy. Allowed me to work in the daytime, go out in the evening and still have some charge to see me home. (Obviously no music, hence how I know the battery capability of an iPod...)

 

[PaulHaddock]

^.

iPhone batteries don't last long anyway and once you've 'worn them in', you get a lot of issues with incorrect battery life and turning itself off even though it has charge. Seem to remember my iPhone 6 always turning off at 20% when I went on Snapchat or similar.

How long have you had it? If it's less than a year then the warranty is still there and they can probably replace the phone/battery. After that, either get them to replace the battery (which costs around £70????) or buy a new phone.

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

Since I've moved over to Samsung the battery has been infinitesimally better than the iPhone. Although, spoiler, dropping it down concrete stairs breaks it.