Smartphones

Here's kinda a silly question but do you guys prefer the "back" button on the right or left? In looking at new phones, I noticed both the M8 and G3 have it (stock) on the bottom left, but to me that's counter intuitive. The Back button I use far and away more than the Menu button, and disregarding the south paws out there, having it closest to my thumb in the bottom right corner is much more comfortable than reaching all the way to the left side every time I want to back out of a chat room or back out of a webpage (which is 98% of my phone use).

I know it's re-mapable but I'm just curious if there's really so many people out there who like it on the left side.

Probably so. The battery stats of the latest Android devices have been pretty impressive. I was just stating my battery life from my own personal experience, in response to the dude saying his 5s drains fast. I think it's pretty clear that I don't use my phone for much. I'm not streaming music, or podcasts, or using constant navigation, so my useage would be "very light" I feel.

But from my own experience, to have xadion say his wife lasts a half day before going dead seemed way off. At least to me, because I've never even gotten close to that.

I guess I'm lucky that I don't use my cell phone for much. If I went to Android, I probably could go 2-3 days before charging. haha

S5 Touchwiz didn't seem THAT bad from messing with it in the store, while it's definitely not stock Android it's at least in the ballpark. Apparently previous versions of Touchwiz were really drastically different though, from what reviews have said. (many complimented Samsung on getting closer to standard Android with it)

And on S4 it was easy, it's sounding like S5 is tough to besides on the Developer edition S5. It's possible you might be able to do a launcher switch though without a full root however. I've effectively got base Android on my M8 simply by installing the Google Play Launcher - if I want it default Android I just switch launchers and it's there without even a reboot. [I don't find Sense 6 to be a substantial change at all, in fact I tend to prefer the changes - I almost only use GPL so I can use the voice controls handsfree]

Crone: I'd say "light" rather than "very light" from your comments (at least during the week) - but yea, it's an important factor to consider - wife and I can have our M8's gasping for battery by the end of the day at times, but we'll also have 10-12 hrs of gaming on the phone during those same days with nearly full brightness/etc, constant navigation, Google Now on to constantly provide location based suggestions, etc. that's likely amongst the heaviest use categories.

I'm sure we could mitigate things to get the battery life to run for days. (In fact, since so much is minor stuff that will be G-Watch doable that we end up doing, and that will save a TON of screen on time, I bet once we get a Moto 360 each or whatever other G Watch we'll start skipping days on charging - it really drains nothing for almost any use we throw at it besides the screen being on stream music for 3 hrs with the screen off? 3% used, etc)

The bloat on my S3 when I originally got it was pretty horrible. I pretty much instantly rooted and installed CleanROM. I've done the same thing with my M8. CleanROM = best rom.

On my Note 3, every samsung app is just inside of 1 Samsung folder by default. theres a lot of them, but they take up no real estate, just 1 icon on 1 screen basically. Its not much different than the Google folder that contains google search, google+, gmail, hangouts, play books, play games, play newstand, play movies & tv, play music, voice search, and chrome.

Vaclav_sl said:

wife and I can have our M8's gasping for battery by the end of the day at times, but we'll also have 10-12 hrs of gaming on the phone during those same days with nearly full brightness/etc, constant navigation, Google Now on to constantly provide location based suggestions, etc.

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how the fuck do you use a cell phone for 12 hours a day

Zodiac_sl said:

how the fuck do you use a cell phone for 12 hours a day

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Well, we're both disabled and end up usually having a few days with 6-8 hrs of doctors between us because of it. Sometimes I'll grab the Vita or 3DS instead, but usually I forget - so I browse, game, or whatever else while we get seen on the phone instead to occupy myself rather than reading 1992 copies of Boy's Life or whatever. Add a couple hours of use once we're home for music streaming, maybe a little gaming while in bed, using the TiVo app, etc and we probably hit 12 a few rare days.

Not saying that's a typical day though, typical is probably more in the 2-4 range.

Gnomedolf_sl said:

My usage pattern is the same with both phones. The Verizon phone gets much better battery life when being used in the same places for the exact same reasons. That's all I need to know or care about.

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I meant in general from the theory that 5S battery life > Current Android that I thought was being stated (looking like I may have assumed wrong however, that people knew they were talking about old phones vs current iPhone) - yea, your case does demonstrate the importance of the network in your region being strong.

I think I misread yours as being iPhone 5S vs Galaxy S5 or something before since that was the discussion at hand, not an Apples to Apples (literally, hah) comparison across networks.

So I have a Galaxy S2 (ya ya, I'll be upgrading soon I hope), on Virgin mobile and whenever I get a group text message it looks the same from one person and when people reply back, it sends a new message from the person using just the number as they are not in my address book. Is my phone too old, the fact that I am on Virgin, or that I use android, but why doesn't it put everyones comments into one chat / text so I can follow the conversation?

Wuyley_sl said:

So I have a Galaxy S2 (ya ya, I'll be upgrading soon I hope), on Virgin mobile and whenever I get a group text message it looks the same from one person and when people reply back, it sends a new message from the person using just the number as they are not in my address book. Is my phone too old, the fact that I am on Virgin, or that I use android, but why doesn't it put everyones comments into one chat / text so I can follow the conversation?

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Old version of Android. This is the same exact problem that I was talking about a page or so back Vaclav. If you are busy and miss out on seeing the group texts come in as they are sent. You'll have to try and figure out the order of the conversation by seeing all the texts from 1 person in their own thread. It doesn't put it all into 1 text "thread" in sequential order.

either amazon is selling a new smartphone on june 18th or they are offering replacement penises

spronk_sl said:

either amazon is selling a new smartphone on june 18th or they are offering replacement penises

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argh they are doing that stupid 3d crap still aint they...

Definitely replacement penises.

gimmicky 3d lock screen, totally worth buying an entire phone that will be locked to amazon's app store.. (no thanks)

Seem relevant to battery life discussion:All hail the new king: The LG G3 dethrones the Samsung Galaxy S5 in our battery life chart, obliterates the rest

Scripts often get gamed, we'll have to see how reality actually fairs. It does look like it should be solid, but M8 in reality often trumps S5 in battery life by an hour or so (so 2 hrs off by their script) doing identical stuff that would fall under "normal usage" so there's definitely something weird about the script.

So work wants to get me a new phone of my choice. Haven't looked at phones for a long time. Any recommendations would be welcomed was considering either S5 or Note 3. I do use VPN app to log into servers to do basic tasks, lots of emails and using web browser work apps as well.