Android Lollipop Hitting Real Samsung Devices
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@scottalanmiller said:
@IRJ said:
I enjoy my rooted phone. If you use proper backup tools there is really no danger to screwing anything up. I have many extra features that I could not live without because of rooting
Support. Support and reliability are the only features I need and that's what is given up when you root the phone.
You've been on iPhone so long I wonder if this is really an issue? Who are you seeing not giving you support when you've rooted your phone? Now, if you brick it, and don't have insurance - that is on you, but if you have insurance, I haven't heard of any cases where they won't swap your phone out.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@IRJ said:
I enjoy my rooted phone. If you use proper backup tools there is really no danger to screwing anything up. I have many extra features that I could not live without because of rooting
Support. Support and reliability are the only features I need and that's what is given up when you root the phone.
I am not sure what kind of support you lose? I have never had to contact the manufacturer about anything.
Gaining Root access does not take away from reliability. Installing custom roms definitely does that, but gain root access does not. You can actually make your phone more reliable since you can do better backups than you can do with a non rooted phone.
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@Dashrender said:
You've been on iPhone so long I wonder if this is really an issue?
Just over a year. Not all that long. But does anyone actually provide support for a rooted phone? Do you get them replaced when things don't work? Like if I have a battery issue I expect a new phone. If I root the phone, will that still happen?
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@Dashrender said:
Now, if you brick it, and don't have insurance - that is on you, but if you have insurance, I haven't heard of any cases where they won't swap your phone out.
Wow, I'm surprised that they let you do that for insurance. Of course, they can't prove that you've rooted it after it is bricked.
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@IRJ said:
I am not sure what kind of support you lose? I have never had to contact the manufacturer about anything.
Good point. I have had to contact them a lot but they were never able to fix Android phones anyway, so I guess that it didn't really matter. Although they did keep replacing them (with more Android phones that didn't work) which they would not have done had it been rooted.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
You've been on iPhone so long I wonder if this is really an issue?
Just over a year. Not all that long. But does anyone actually provide support for a rooted phone? Do you get them replaced when things don't work? Like if I have a battery issue I expect a new phone. If I root the phone, will that still happen?
I had insurance replace two rooted phones in the past. Of course both devices were non-functional when it was claimed. I guess I never thought about the battery issue thing, batteries are generally cheap enough where if I have a problem I just buy a replacement. To be fair I haven't had the need to root my most recent device (Galaxy Note 2) everything I need is generally included from stock.
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@coliver said:
I guess I never thought about the battery issue thing, batteries are generally cheap enough where if I have a problem I just buy a replacement. To be fair I haven't had the need to root my most recent device (Galaxy Note 2) everything I need is generally included from stock.
If you have phones that allow you to replace batteries and if it is the battery itself that is the problem. We had an Android for which it was not the battery but the firmware that killed the battery.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@coliver said:
I guess I never thought about the battery issue thing, batteries are generally cheap enough where if I have a problem I just buy a replacement. To be fair I haven't had the need to root my most recent device (Galaxy Note 2) everything I need is generally included from stock.
If you have phones that allow you to replace batteries and if it is the battery itself that is the problem. We had an Android for which it was not the battery but the firmware that killed the battery.
Interesting, never had that problem. Good to know. I was prolific with trying custom ROMs on my Droid X and Droid X2. So having bizarre battery issues was fairly common never heard about it from stock though.
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"Stock" is a fuzzy term when we are talking about vendor phones. They are heavily modified from Google's vanilla platform.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@coliver said:
I guess I never thought about the battery issue thing, batteries are generally cheap enough where if I have a problem I just buy a replacement. To be fair I haven't had the need to root my most recent device (Galaxy Note 2) everything I need is generally included from stock.
If you have phones that allow you to replace batteries and if it is the battery itself that is the problem. We had an Android for which it was not the battery but the firmware that killed the battery.
That is one of those situation where rooting and installing another firmware would have probably fixed the issue.
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@scottalanmiller said:
"Stock" is a fuzzy term when we are talking about vendor phones. They are heavily modified from Google's vanilla platform.
Exactly - Stock AT&T, or Stock Verizon...
@coliver said:
Interesting, never had that problem. Good to know. I was prolific with trying custom ROMs on my Droid X and Droid X2. So having bizarre battery issues was fairly common never heard about it from stock though.
Really? I had battery issues all the time with older non rooted Android phones.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
"Stock" is a fuzzy term when we are talking about vendor phones. They are heavily modified from Google's vanilla platform.
Exactly - Stock AT&T, or Stock Verizon...
Generally it wasn't the carriers putting their custom skin on (although they did sometimes) it was the OEM causing the issues. The original Touchwiz was basically garbage, although the recent versions were really good. Don't get me started on the Motorola UI, probably some of the worst designed interfaces ever. Made rooting and adding an ASOP ROM that much more enjoyable.
@coliver said:
Interesting, never had that problem. Good to know. I was prolific with trying custom ROMs on my Droid X and Droid X2. So having bizarre battery issues was fairly common never heard about it from stock though.
Really? I had battery issues all the time with older non rooted Android phones.
No I can honestly say I never really had battery issues on my older non-rooted phones. It wasn't until I rooted and put a custom ROM on them that my battery went all crazy. Generally when that happened clearing the dvalik cache solved some of the issues. Although that was a fairly regular thing.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Android suffers the same problems as Windows Phone - carrier dependance to get updates.
Ding ding ding. This is the killer feature of iOS. It's amazing how much the carriers kill the non-iOS platforms. And before anyone tells me to root a phone, that sentiment proves my point. My phone isn't a toy, it is a critical communications device.
While WP does come with carrier bloatware, you can uninstall it like any other non-system app.
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I always giggle a little bit when anyone mentions rooting their phones or their phone is rooted.
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@Dashrender said:
Android suffers the same problems as Windows Phone - carrier dependance to get updates.
I really wish that Google and MS would stand up to the carriers and take the updates back.
I do realize that the carriers do this primarily to keep locked down control over the phones lowering the support calls they'll probably get, but that just leaves us users at the whim of the carriers to roll out updates, some of which are serious security flaws.I wonder if going to an unlocked system, more inline with a European setup we could get there?
I'm also curious, how much do the carriers earn putting the crapware on the phones that they do? This is yet another reason they don't want to have the OSs come directly from the manufacture, it would by pass their junkware.
Can you buy factory unlocked? I did this when I bought my current phone and I intend on buying my next phone the same way. A larger and limiting upfront cost but no carrier bloatware and I'm not tied to any of the carriers.
EDIT: also, if you have a factory unlocked phone, I believe that the OS updates can come OTA from the manufacturer -
@nadnerB said:
@Dashrender said:
Android suffers the same problems as Windows Phone - carrier dependance to get updates.
I really wish that Google and MS would stand up to the carriers and take the updates back.
I do realize that the carriers do this primarily to keep locked down control over the phones lowering the support calls they'll probably get, but that just leaves us users at the whim of the carriers to roll out updates, some of which are serious security flaws.I wonder if going to an unlocked system, more inline with a European setup we could get there?
I'm also curious, how much do the carriers earn putting the crapware on the phones that they do? This is yet another reason they don't want to have the OSs come directly from the manufacture, it would by pass their junkware.
Can you buy factory unlocked? I did this when I bought my current phone and I intend on buying my next phone the same way. A larger and limiting upfront cost but no carrier bloatware and I'm not tied to any of the carriers.
EDIT: also, if you have a factory unlocked phone, I believe that the OS updates can come OTA from the manufacturerSometimes yes, sometimes no, just depends on the vendor. Also until recently carriers might not allow you to use your phone on their network. This though has become much more relaxed. Unfortunately we run into band issues instead.
For example (I haven't verified this myself) I've heard that the European unlocked version of Windows Phone does not support USA 4G, only HPSA (+).
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@Dashrender said:
For example (I haven't verified this myself) I've heard that the European unlocked version of Windows Phone does not support USA 4G, only HPSA (+).
The US and Europe don't share all bands, so that stuff happens a lot.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
For example (I haven't verified this myself) I've heard that the European unlocked version of Windows Phone does not support USA 4G, only HPSA (+).
The US and Europe don't share all bands, so that stuff happens a lot.
Which kills some of the ability to get factory unlocked phones - just not a normal USA thing yet.
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iPhone is unlocked from the Apple Store I believe. I can move my device between carriers. But I don't need to as my T-Mobile account is global.
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@scottalanmiller said:
iPhone is unlocked from the Apple Store I believe. I can move my device between carriers. But I don't need to as my T-Mobile account is global.
Apples even from the carrier doesn't come with carrier bloatware though, right? If not, then it's not really part of the conversation.
