Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015 (for me so far)

[Starglider]

Well, what did you think? It all went as expected if you ask me... I don't hold much hope for any kick ass new tech this year... So lets get to it.

 

Samsung Galaxy S6 & S6 Edge

 

 

I've been using Samsung Galaxy S range phones now for years, I've been on contract with the S1, S2, S3 and S4. But personally I think Samsung have done nothing new or worth writing home about since the S3.

 

So what's the difference between the two models?

1. It has curved screen edges (yes like the one they showed off by Samsung mid 2013!)
   http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/24/4768264/samsung-shows-off-working-curved-screen-smartphone
    
2. It has the curve on both sides unlike the one shown mid 2013
    
3. It looks to be a plastic case rather than metal like the S6
    
4. Has side swipe points (what's the bets that will bring the screen out of standby each time you pick up the phone causing a big loss in battery life)

Now for the good points, because the bad points will (for me) put you off these mobiles from even being considered a purchase or locking me into another 2 year contract.

 

 

The good

1. Oooo curved screen (Personally I don't think much of this, would have pref the screen bending version which reduces sun glare)
   http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/8/4818572/samsung-galaxy-round-curved-oled-smartphone-official
2. It doesn't have a Snapdragon 810 processor which is known to overheat
3. Supposedly a better camera than the iPhone 6 (I will wait till I've seen GSM Arena samples on this however)
4. All the usual expected stuff (but not all!)
5. Metal case and glass rear on S6, S6 Edge looks to be plastic also not sure if edge has glass rear
6. 20% brighter screens

 

The bad

1. Non removable battery! WTF
2. No micro card sd slot! WTF WTF!
3. Stupid screen resolution 1440p - there goes your battery life and 20% brighter, probably drain the battery 20% faster lol
4. Under 3000 mAh battery (are they ever going to learn, if not by now, I doubt it)
5. Tried to sell us the usual bull of how fast the camera now opens, when we all know it wont be like that all the time and eventually after lots of use, apps and background services running etc that camera app will take a second or two to run

 

Conclusion (for me)
Time to move on, nothing to see here, adios samsung and thanks for all the fish!

 

 

For full specifications check out:

Galaxy S6
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s6-6849.php

Galaxy S6 Edge

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s6_edge-7079.php

 

 

 

 

HTC One M9

 

 

I've never really been a fan of HTC, but I think it could be time to check it out, now that they moved away from 4x4cm pixels and a 2mp camera.

 

The good

1. Good screen resolution (1080p) complete waste of battery and money after this IMO
2. Front facing speakers
3. Case
4. 20MP Camera (quality needs to be reviewed check GSM Arena some point after release)
5. MicroSD card slot
6. 3GB Ram
7. 32GB of internal space (I didn't see a 16GB model, but there probably will be)

The bad

1. Snapdragon 810 processor know for overheating issues
2. I personally do not like the customisations they have made to the android system (I would probably flash the device with stock android when I can but I wouldn't recommend this to all as you can turn it into a worthless brick and void your warranty)
3. Battery still under 3000 mAh (2840 but only has to power a 1080p screen)

 

So it looks like we have a clear winner, even if I don't buy the HTC One M9, it's a clear winner over the S6 and S6 Edge (for me).

 

Full phone specifications can be found here:

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_one_m9-6891.php

 

 

 

Now for the one I will probably purchase...

 

 

Xiaomi Mi Note

 

 

I've never had one from them before but the stats and design and screen to body ratio is better than anything Samsung or HTC have to date with the same design. Main stats which push me to buy this are:

 

1. 5.7" screen (personally I'm not a fan of anything over 5" but after using a Galaxy Note 4 I found it quite nice)
2. 1080p screen (no silly resolutions)
3. Android 4.4.4 (5.0 would have been nice but no loss there really)
4. 2.5Ghz (need more? why?)
5. 16/32/64GB internal storage versions
6. 3GB Ram
7. 13MP Camera (Which I will probably set to 8 or 9)
8. 3000 mAh battery (would have liked to have seen a 3500 on a device with this screen resolution but at 1080p shouldnt be so bad)

Only 2 negative, non removable battery and no MicroSD card slot, but it's been a long time since I've used my phone for watching videos or cramming it with more apps & MP3s than I could listen to given the battery life on these things (I pref to refine my play lists).

 

Full specifications at:

http://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_note-6944.php

 

 

 

As for the rest so far (sunday 01), HTC Vibe could be worth a look at, look how fast they got that ready compared to oculus rift! Piss take or what. They announced the HTC Vibe in partnership with Steam will be released Q4 2015, which will probably be before the oculus rift. Oculus rift moves an IR LED 1cm to the right and they treat it like man just landed on the moon for the first time.

 

 

Code on...

 

Starglider

[Victorious Secret]

The Mi Note can join the Nexus 6 in the "are you kidding me" levels of bigness for a phone. Its just silly how big it is. 

[Starglider]

The Mi Note can join the Nexus 6 in the "are you kidding me" levels of bigness for a phone. Its just silly how big it is. 

 

That is the only thing that's making me think... hmm not sure... Too big :\  My thumb cant reach the other side of the screen on my s4

[Speedbird]

I'm going back to HTC Sense if Sense 7 is good enough.

[Thorium19]

I don't see the snapdragon 810 being an issue. Yes samsung dudnt use it, but that's more of an excuse to use their own exynos chips instead, and LG struggled with it in the Gflex 2 because of the design of the phone. HTC won't be stupid enough to not have some decent cooling system for it, plus it's an aluminium phone so will certainly help slightly with passive cooling. I can see the battery being an issue with the samsung due to the resolution but for the HTC and xiaomi it's not too bad, at least for me as I'm quite frugal with phone usage.

[UltraNeonGaming]

I am soooooooo damn disappointed in samsung with the GS6, I have had my S4 since day 1 and it has held up amazingly well, looks like I'm getting the M9.

The S6 is a massive disappointment, samsung even took away a removable battery! WHICH THEY WHERE ADVERTISING 24/7 ON THE GS5, COMPARING IT TO THE IPHONE, the S6 looks like a fake iPhone knock off.

[UltraNeonGaming]

I don't see the snapdragon 810 being an issue. Yes samsung dudnt use it, but that's more of an excuse to use their own exynos chips instead, and LG struggled with it in the Gflex 2 because of the design of the phone. HTC won't be stupid enough to not have some decent cooling system for it, plus it's an aluminium phone so will certainly help slightly with passive cooling. I can see the battery being an issue with the samsung due to the resolution but for the HTC and xiaomi it's not too bad, at least for me as I'm quite frugal with phone usage.

Samsung has the same chips that make up the 810 SoC, they are missing out on the qualcomm features, chipset and the Adreno 430 GPU

 

The S6 has the same chips as the M9: Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57 (Clocked 0.1Ghz higher than the M9, so it can run touch wiz lol)

[Thorium19]

Samsung has the same chips that make up the 810 SoC, they are missing out on the qualcomm features, chipset and the Adreno 430 GPU

 

The S6 has the same chips as the M9: Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57 (Clocked 0.1Ghz higher than the M9, so it can run touch wiz lol)

Exactly. Samsung just used overheating as an excuse with no clear proof of it, all so they could have a reason to use their own chips. There's no reason why the 810 would overheat when the exynos doesn't when they've the same base specs.

[UltraNeonGaming]

Exactly. Samsung just used overheating as an excuse with no clear proof of it, all so they could have a reason to use their own chips. There's no reason why the 810 would overheat when the exynos doesn't when they've the same base specs.

The S6 is so disappointing, I am very pleased with my GS4 from day 1, 2 years ago.

 

All the stuff listed here that the S6 doesn't have, is what the M9 boasts

Samsung has a smaller non-removable battery, 1440p screen that kills the battery and looks the same as 1080p even though it is pentile matrix, No more SD card slot, looks like an iPhone 6 (Samsung I thought you learned to stay away from anything Apple after those lawsuits?), it doesn't have radio (If you care at all) and most importantly... NO FRONT FACING SPEAKERS!, SAMSUNG IS STILL USING THEIR SH*T TIN CAN SPEAKERS.

Samsung y u do dis

[Thorium19]

The S6 is so disappointing, I am very pleased with my GS4 from day 1; 2 years ago.

 

All the stuff listed here that the S6 doesn't have, is what the M9 boasts

Samsung has a smaller non-removable battery, 1440p screen that kills the battery and looks the same as 1080p even though it is pentile matrix, No more SD card slot, looks like an iPhone 6 (Samsung I though you learned to stay away from anything Apple after those lawsuits?), it doesn't have radio (If you care at all) and most importantly... NO FRONT FACING SPEAKERS!, SAMSUNG IS STILL USING THEIR SH*T TIN CAN SPEAKERS.

Samsung y u do dis

I don't mind about the radio, and to be honest, I really like their amoled displays, but the resolution and battery is a joke, as is the design. It's like a mix between a Z3, iPhone 6 and iPhone 4S. And with the touch based fingerprint scanner in the home button, it's basically, got a massive target painted on its shiny behind for lawsuits.

[Zambonie]

Honestly ive tried out the galaxy note edge, with the curved screen on the edge... I didn't like it at all, as of it was uncomfortable and just 'bleh', it felt weird to hold and use. Though its nice that the whole screen overall is curved.

And I already thought Samsung screens are already bright enough. Especially with AMOLED (Amoled on full brightness hurts my eyes tbh when I look at it for a few minutes)

No MicroSD card = no buy. I absolutley need one. And the battery life.

Though ima put away my hate and put on some praise. Yay for 1440p, I really like 1440p on phones. It looks great imo compared to other res's.

Metal cases are nice, they are not really needed (plastic is fine as well as its good quality plastic imo), just its nice to have metal.

Camera sounds like its gonna be good.

 

For the M9, those megapixels tho.

Everything sounds nice about the M9, I just would have liked a bigger battery and, not needed but would be nice to have, and 1440p screen. (yes i really like 1440p)

Snapdragon 810 to, yay.

 

For the Mi Note, never heard of such a thing, though specs arn't that bad at all.

One thing though.

Dear gawd the microsd card slot.

 

And like said by @Thorium19 , I don't see a problem with the 810. With all the reasons he listed.

 

If I were to chose one of these if I had to buy, it would be the M9.

 

Nothing on the LG G4, i'm guessing (yet?) I think I heard they wont be attending, from somewhere.

[UltraNeonGaming]

I don't mind about the radio, and to be honest, I really like their amoled displays, but the resolution and battery is a joke, as is the design. It's like a mix between a Z3, iPhone 6 and iPhone 4S. And with the touch based fingerprint scanner in the home button, it's basically, got a massive target painted on its shiny behind for lawsuits.

I like the AMOLED display on my S4, but the "New" normal GS6 has a 2550MAh battery, my 2 year old S4 has a 2600MAh removable battery...

Samsung you screwed up, bad.

[UltraNeonGaming]

Exactly. Samsung just used overheating as an excuse with no clear proof of it, all so they could have a reason to use their own chips. There's no reason why the 810 would overheat when the exynos doesn't when they've the same base specs.

The S6 also has one of their 2 chips in the phone clocked higher than the M9, it is not fully metal, like the M9 which acts as a massive passive heatsink, the M9 also has a Li-Po battery over the Li-Ion in the S6 which can heat up more.

 

Who here has the "Overheating" problems? Samsung!

[Starglider]

The S6 also has one of their 2 chips in the phone clocked higher than the M9, it is not fully metal, like the M9 which acts as a massive passive heatsink, the M9 also has a Li-Po battery over the Li-Ion in the S6 which can heat up more.

 

Who here has the "Overheating" problems? Samsung!

 

My S4 really cooks after doing application developer tests which push the GPU, I dont buy games for it but I can only assume it must be really cooking after someone has a 4hour gaming session on the thing. It is hot enough to give me concern at times, it's in a localised area but I do like my S4.