Greetings.
I got this phone on the Red plan, paying $5 a month and noticed it's a different model to the standard world edition some time ago.
The specific model number is the GT-19505, which it will tell you as it's booting up.
9gb storage inbuilt, i'm guessing it's 64gb max but haven't verified yet.
Dual core 1.9ghtz processor seems to be the heart of this phone, upgraded from the GT19500's dual-cpu quad core 1.6ghtz.
I say upgrade, because the 1.6ghtz "octacore" isn't an octacore processor at all, it's two 1.6ghtz quad cores that turn on and off relevant to whether you currently need peformance or power saving. That means you're only running half of the installed cores at once and thus only truly get a 1.6ghtz quad core power out of the GT-19500 machine.
Cameras, video, antenna etc all appear to be standard with other models and function very well, it's much more capable at making and receiving calls in a 1-bar reception area than the huawei x3 my partner had... she's using this phone now also, since finances have changed a bit
The phone seems to have a configuration bug sometimes on purchase, i noticed considerable lag and sluggishness and was advised to do a factory reset, which fixed the issue.
I have had no issues with copying over video and music to it, with VLC for android i can even watch subtitled foreign films with SSA/***/SRT subs.
There are some driver issues with it on windows, there's about 6 different driver revisions for it which windows update is continually asking you to change/update etc however from stock install there doesn't seem to be any limitation to staying with the default drivers. USB tethering to use the phones' internet is just affected a bit and is a bit moody/temperamental.
Kies over wifi didn't work at all, until a firmware update was released. Was around ~350 megabytes and took the phone around 10 minutes to install and setup. Ensure you visit the camera and let it upgrade camera firmware after installing it, since it's not automated and will update the first time you open the camera after updating the main phone firmware.
Kies over USB was hit and miss until the firmware update as well, neither of these two Kies issues were a real problem however since i could always access the root folder of the phone via USB and do a direct copy + paste to my PC to manually backup the phone by a traditional file copy operation.
All in all, i'm very happy with this phone and would recommend it. I've dropped it a couple of times from about 4 foot in the air and it did dent on the corner, that's about it. Now i have a case and screen protector for it, as advised to by vodafone staff as well, which set me back around $45 all up. Definitely a worthwhile investment on a $600 phone I.M.O
Battery life is only around 12 hours standby and 3 maybe 5 hours interactive time, i picked up a 9000mAh portable charger for $99 and found it still fits in most mens' clothing pockets alongside the phone. This upped my usable screen/music time to around 3 days heavy usage.
If you're out of office alot and needing an android, this phone is definitely your port of call. I can even install Polaris PDF reader and kingsoft office and have almost full desktop functionality on it.
Haven't looked into using a stylus with the phone yet, however the touch sensitivity is quite good so i simply haven't needed one, fingers are most definitely good enough 99.9% of the time.
Similarly the rotating display sensor is very sensitive, this can cause some small frustration as you turn the phone and the screen turns as well and stays facing the wrong direction lol... sometimes a gently tap on the back is needed to reset the gyro so the screen is orientated correctly.
The stock internet browser is very powerful, i can enable desktop view even on complex pages like youtube/facebook and browse as if i was on a desktop or other fully functional computer.
The device can get a bit warm sometimes when i have the wireless hotspot connected, but that's the only hardware concern i've ever had.
Haven't rooted or flashed the phone at all for custom firmware, there has been utterly no reason to so far. I always have access to android root folders, even when browsing thru the inbuilt file manager.
All in all, i cannot say this phone has been disappointing in any way, shape or form.
I got this phone on the Red plan, paying $5 a month and noticed it's a different model to the standard world edition some time ago.
The specific model number is the GT-19505, which it will tell you as it's booting up.
9gb storage inbuilt, i'm guessing it's 64gb max but haven't verified yet.
Dual core 1.9ghtz processor seems to be the heart of this phone, upgraded from the GT19500's dual-cpu quad core 1.6ghtz.
I say upgrade, because the 1.6ghtz "octacore" isn't an octacore processor at all, it's two 1.6ghtz quad cores that turn on and off relevant to whether you currently need peformance or power saving. That means you're only running half of the installed cores at once and thus only truly get a 1.6ghtz quad core power out of the GT-19500 machine.
Cameras, video, antenna etc all appear to be standard with other models and function very well, it's much more capable at making and receiving calls in a 1-bar reception area than the huawei x3 my partner had... she's using this phone now also, since finances have changed a bit
The phone seems to have a configuration bug sometimes on purchase, i noticed considerable lag and sluggishness and was advised to do a factory reset, which fixed the issue.
I have had no issues with copying over video and music to it, with VLC for android i can even watch subtitled foreign films with SSA/***/SRT subs.
There are some driver issues with it on windows, there's about 6 different driver revisions for it which windows update is continually asking you to change/update etc however from stock install there doesn't seem to be any limitation to staying with the default drivers. USB tethering to use the phones' internet is just affected a bit and is a bit moody/temperamental.
Kies over wifi didn't work at all, until a firmware update was released. Was around ~350 megabytes and took the phone around 10 minutes to install and setup. Ensure you visit the camera and let it upgrade camera firmware after installing it, since it's not automated and will update the first time you open the camera after updating the main phone firmware.
Kies over USB was hit and miss until the firmware update as well, neither of these two Kies issues were a real problem however since i could always access the root folder of the phone via USB and do a direct copy + paste to my PC to manually backup the phone by a traditional file copy operation.
All in all, i'm very happy with this phone and would recommend it. I've dropped it a couple of times from about 4 foot in the air and it did dent on the corner, that's about it. Now i have a case and screen protector for it, as advised to by vodafone staff as well, which set me back around $45 all up. Definitely a worthwhile investment on a $600 phone I.M.O
Battery life is only around 12 hours standby and 3 maybe 5 hours interactive time, i picked up a 9000mAh portable charger for $99 and found it still fits in most mens' clothing pockets alongside the phone. This upped my usable screen/music time to around 3 days heavy usage.
If you're out of office alot and needing an android, this phone is definitely your port of call. I can even install Polaris PDF reader and kingsoft office and have almost full desktop functionality on it.
Haven't looked into using a stylus with the phone yet, however the touch sensitivity is quite good so i simply haven't needed one, fingers are most definitely good enough 99.9% of the time.
Similarly the rotating display sensor is very sensitive, this can cause some small frustration as you turn the phone and the screen turns as well and stays facing the wrong direction lol... sometimes a gently tap on the back is needed to reset the gyro so the screen is orientated correctly.
The stock internet browser is very powerful, i can enable desktop view even on complex pages like youtube/facebook and browse as if i was on a desktop or other fully functional computer.
The device can get a bit warm sometimes when i have the wireless hotspot connected, but that's the only hardware concern i've ever had.
Haven't rooted or flashed the phone at all for custom firmware, there has been utterly no reason to so far. I always have access to android root folders, even when browsing thru the inbuilt file manager.
All in all, i cannot say this phone has been disappointing in any way, shape or form.
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