Majority of Android phones are not "junk" phones

JeffDenver

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z33dev33l

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The average sales price of an Android phone is around $300 right now. The One+1, a phone with flagship specs, sells for $300. That means the average Android consumer can now afford a flagship Android device.

IDC data shows 66% of Android's 81% smartphone share are junk phones selling for $215

Windows Phones sell for about the same price. Contrary to popular belief, Android marketshare is not driven by cheap phones. The best selling Android Devices are high end, not low end, phones.

Windows Phone has a phone that sells for $50 lowering that average drastically, especially with it being the highest selling Windows Phone device by a long shot.. Most people aren't getting the Oneplus for $300, they're getting mostly junk phones and the occasional Nexus in that price range and of course the best selling individual devices are the high end, those are the only ones people know about. However, there are many more phones on the low end that people pick up without concern for brand and the like.
 

z33dev33l

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Oh gee, you seem to be suggesting that "cheap" does not necessarily mean "junk". omg imagine that.

That term was used by the website, not me. That said, most budget Android handsets do not have a GPU accelerated UI, no update map, very little support, all that jazz. Motorola seems to genuinely want to change that now that there is an Android version that can operate better on low-end hardware and I wish them well in that regard.
 

Ry

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You should probably define "junk".

My assumption in this context is that "junk" = an OEM's non-flagship devices.
 

z33dev33l

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You should probably define "junk".

My assumption in this context is that "junk" = an OEM's non-flagship devices.

I wouldn't say that, junk is a phone that lacks support and lacks features that make the phone usable (For instance, my cousin's "junk" galaxy S Centura started having memory issues when she'd installed nothing but Facebook and Tumblr)
 

JeffDenver

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That term was used by the website, not me. That said, most budget Android handsets do not have a GPU accelerated UI, no update map, very little support, all that jazz. Motorola seems to genuinely want to change that now that there is an Android version that can operate better on low-end hardware and I wish them well in that regard.
Any Android phone can have a GPU accelerated UI...just enable it in developer options. I have it enabled on all my devices (ASUS Transformer tablet, HTC Rezound, Galaxy Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S3, ect..). I have noticed no impact on battery life. And I don't know for a fact that the Moto E does not already use the GPU for UI acceleration. But even if it doesn't, it can still have it, like any Android phone.
 

itic

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I think this data could suggest that the lower price point phone market is becoming more and more disposable. People with limited incomes or needs are buying up more prepaid packages that include phones and network service and ditching land line service or buying phones
 

z33dev33l

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Any Android phone can have a GPU accelerated UI...just enable it in developer options. I have it enabled on all my devices (ASUS Transformer tablet, HTC Rezound, Galaxy Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S3, ect..). I have noticed no impact on battery life. And I don't know for a fact that the Moto E does not already use the GPU for UI acceleration. But even if it doesn't, it can still have it, like any Android phone.

Android as a whole wasn't able to have a fully GPU accelerated UI until Ice Cream Sandwich so I know that's not the case and either way it has to be programmed specifically for the chipset for it to function in full. That's where most of the early android lag arguments stemmed from, the lack of that. Now, it's just general lag.
 

JeffDenver

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Android as a whole wasn't able to have a fully GPU accelerated UI until Ice Cream Sandwich so I know that's not the case
Whats not the case? ICS and above has been the majority of Android phones for a while now. At least a year.
File:Android historical version distribution - vector.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As of right now, Jellybean and above is on the vast majority of Android devices. My $40 tablet I bought from Microcenter before Christmas had Jellybean installed, and has GPU acceleration.
 

z33dev33l

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Whats not the case? ICS and above has been the majority of Android phones for a while now. At least a year.
File:Android historical version distribution - vector.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As of right now, Jellybean and above is on the vast majority of Android devices. My $40 tablet I bought from Microcenter before Christmas had Jellybean installed, and has GPU acceleration.

It's still not the case for all phones. Also, I just checked into the Hardware acceleration that you can enable there. It is to be used within apps that don't use it.

The reason Android has a choppy UI is because of the way the framework was laid down in like, what? 05? It was basically created where touch takes the same priority as every other bit of processing whereas both Windows Phone and iOS use what's called Real Time Processing which sets the touch on a higher priority than the other processing. Now, with your higher end Android phones, they often have the ram to mostly compensate for this minus a few hiccups but the lower end models don't.
 

JeffDenver

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It's still not the case for all phones. Also, I just checked into the Hardware acceleration that you can enable there. It is to be used within apps that don't use it.
I know for a fact this is false. I have tested it myself. The difference is dramatic and immediate in the regular UI. It's not just used within apps.

My Asus Tablet feels like new after enabling it. It is faster than it has ever been.

The reason Android has a choppy UI is because of the way the framework was laid down in like, what? 05? It was basically created where touch takes the same priority as every other bit of processing whereas both Windows Phone and iOS use what's called Real Time Processing which sets the touch on a higher priority than the other processing. Now, with your higher end Android phones, they often have the ram to mostly compensate for this minus a few hiccups but the lower end models don't.
Whatever the reason, it does not apply anymore. Even low end phones have roomy amounts of RAM now. Even the Moto E has a gig.
 

z33dev33l

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I know for a fact this is false. I have tested it myself. The difference is dramatic and immediate in the regular UI. It's not just used within apps.

My Asus Tablet feels like new after enabling it. It is faster than it has ever been.

Outside of the general UI that is quite likely, that'd be acknowledging that there was lag prior to that though. Hmm...

Whatever the reason, it does not apply anymore. Even low end phones have roomy amounts of RAM now. Even the Moto E has a gig.

$139 is not low end for everyone though. Sure, it's a decent price for a smartphone but there are several cheaper offerings with 512 and even 256 MB of ram. Also, dependent on the background activity, 1 gig of ram isn't going to be enough to counteract this in a lot of situations.
 

JeffDenver

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Outside of the general UI that is quite likely, that'd be acknowledging that there was lag prior to that though. Hmm...
On my Asus tablet? Of course there was lag. The hardware is almost 2 years old and it was polluted with LG's UI. Why would it be a surprise that it had lag?

$140 is low end by anyone's standards. And you can get them lower than that anyway.
Moto G $99 - Best Buy Selling Off-Contract Moto G for $99 | News & Opinion | PCMag.com
Moto E $130 - Amazon.com: Motorola Moto E - Global GSM - Unlocked - 4GB (Black): Cell Phones & Accessories
 

z33dev33l

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Outside of the general UI that is quite likely, that'd be acknowledging that there was lag prior to that though. Hmm...



$139 is not low end for everyone though. Sure, it's a decent price for a smartphone but there are several cheaper offerings with 512 and even 256 MB of ram. Also, dependent on the background activity, 1 gig of ram isn't going to be enough to counteract this in a lot of situations.

For instance, the highest selling smartphone on Straight Talk is the galaxy I mentioned earlier, the Galaxy Centura. It has 512 megabytes of ram and it's absolute torture to use. Sure, it's an older phone but it's still heavily advertised and pushed through Straight Talk so it is relevant.
 

A895

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For instance, the highest selling smartphone on Straight Talk is the galaxy I mentioned earlier, the Galaxy Centura. It has 512 megabytes of ram and it's absolute torture to use. Sure, it's an older phone but it's still heavily advertised and pushed through Straight Talk so it is relevant.

Its also being used by people who won't care as long as their phone works and had access to the apps they use.

Posted via Android Central App
 

z33dev33l

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Its also being used by people who won't care as long as their phone works and had access to the apps they use.

Posted via Android Central App
As stated above, she downloaded Facebook and Tumblr and was already getting errors that the memory was almost full and frequent force closes.
 

A895

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As stated above, she downloaded Facebook and Tumblr and was already getting errors that the memory was almost full and frequent force closes.

From what I see from Straight Talks website, they have a lot of phones around the Centuras price point, why didn't she spring for those? I found at least 2 that had better specs with a ~$50 price difference from the Ventura. Did you not advise into this situation? I would have gotten her a Lumia 520 before that POS device.

Posted via Android Central App
 

z33dev33l

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From what I see from Straight Talks website, they have a lot of phones around the Centuras price point, why didn't she spring for those? I found at least 2 that had better specs with a ~$50 price difference from the Ventura. Did you not advise into this situation? I would have gotten her a Lumia 520 before that POS device.

Posted via Android Central App

I got her into the Lumia 521 soon after thanks to a $40 sale. She barely has any income working fast food as a 16 year old with scummy parents. She wanted a phone and it was the cheapest one they had at Wal Mart that was a smartphone and she'd heard the Galaxy name so she figured it was good.
 

Kevin OQuinn

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Since Project Butter touching the screen ramps CPU up to increase UI responsiveness.

That has nothing to do with the amount of RAM.

Also, memory equals RAM, not storage.

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