How is the Skyrocket overall?

[mc511]

So as i stated in the HHTC vivid forums i am on the market for a new LTE phone fr att and was looking at the HTC and the skyrocket. I would like some opinions on the phone itself. I am doing some research since i am buying off contract.

How doe the phone hold up against basic phone functions such as text messaging and phone calls hold up?
Hows the screen?
Since i am a game developer and will be making a game for android phones would this be a decent testing device?
Any odd quarks i should know bout?

Any final thoughts would be awesome as well. Thanks to everyone for their help. I want to make sure i get the best device out there on ATT.

 

[jdm-skyrocket]

I have had my skyrocket since mid november, The display on the skyrocke is amazing, its what sold me on buying this phone in the first place, I haven't seen another phone out there that even comes close! I have never had any problems with texts or call, plus with the 1.5ghz duel core processor, this phone would be ideal for game testing, this is by far the best phone I have ever owned!! I have my skyrocket rooted, I'm on the skyicecream 6.6 custom rom with the sky kernel 0.0.8b4 custom kernel by faux123 flashed over the rom, i have the processor running @ 1.73ghz so my phone blazes!

 

[dahkillah]

screen : amazing.
text messaging : no issues
phone calls : there are times that other line could not hear me or "fading". could be my phone case or signal dropping.
games: good enough for games

 

[dalvik]

yeah the screen is amazing but mostly on a day or room light, in the dark though, if you are watching a movie or playing a game or anything that has to do with black color on your screen you can see blotches and sometimes even vertical lines on your display (i had them before but don't see now) plus most of the time (in the dark room or with dimmed lights also) you can see sorta like brushed metal texture on the screen it looks expecially wierd if you try to move the picture and those lines stay fixed on top of it.... this has been discussed here and in other Samsung phones forums (Galaxy Nexus has this thing too) and It appears that it is someting most SAmoled + screens suffer from. so probably this is a side effect of that particulat technology. it doesn't bother me though cuz I rarely if never watch the movies on my phone but i do play games sometimes and I can see it. Other than that the phone is an awesome device. call quality, texting, messaging etc. etc. are on the level you'd expect from a high end device. no complaints here. the battery life is also not that bad considering its an LTE phone. but I have a spare one with me all the time just in case. So all is well, and honestly since the first day i got this phone i havent had any problems with it (no sudden reboots. freezes etc. knock on wood..) just thought you should know about the screen though.....

 

[dahkillah]

i had the lines/blotches issues too with black skyrocket. i had it replaced with white one. i still see blotches but it is significantly better than the black one.

battery is ok. i get 10 hours of heavy use.

 

[dalvik]

i think there are actually some apps by supercurio from xda that suppose to if not fix but improve some issues with SAMoled+ hopefully he'll come up with that particular fix as well.....

 

[jdm-skyrocket]

I have never seen thes lines/ blotches on my skyrocket.

 

[dalvik]

I have never seen thes lines/ blotches on my skyrocket.

wow really.... you must've found a gem.. cuz i've personally seen like 5 of these phones at ATT stores and all of them have this plus lots of threads on the net.
Edit:
I'm not being sarcastic btw.

 

[randall2580]

I have had the SR since Dec 10, coming from Blackberry I like the phone very much. To your questions:
screen: very sharp. I know there have been some complaints about lines when using the screen at the lower end of brightness - I haven't noticed. Anyone who sees the phone and picks it up comments on how sharp the screen is - almost without exception.

texting: no issues. Coming from BB typing on the screen takes some getting used to but using the android voice to text works really well.

phone calls: again no issues. I live in NE Penn and work in Westchester, NY. All along my route I get HSPA+ for the most part - and good clear calls. No drops noted to date. Took the phone to South America in December - worked well there too - so travels well.

I don't use my phone much for gaming so I can't really speak to it except Words with Friends that works flawlessly if that helps. I say that specifically as my Samsung GT 8.9 has trouble with the game.

Qurks: The one "complaint" I have about the phone so far is that it doesn't play well with Vlingo using Bluetooth (I have a BlueAnt S4 in my car). Use Vlingo on the phone works very well, use it on the Bluetooth - gets maybe every 2nd or 3rd word most of the time - gets very frustrating to the point I don't use it in the car any more and that's a shame the program is perfect if it works the way it did without the Bluetooth.

I took the SR over the Vivid after doing alot of reading and playing at my local ATT store - I thought the screen on the SR looked better and I liked the feel of the SR in my hand, though I am sure if you go to the Vivid forum they would say the same about their choice.

 

[dalvik]

the screen really is sharp for being a nonHD i was surprised when i saw it first time and compared to my Atrix it looked almost the same if not even better in terms of pixel density. I can only image how fantastic SAmoled+ HD would look...
randall2580 sorry for the offtop. but how do you like your galaxy Tab 8.9? would you recommend it over Asus TF Prime? thanks.

 

[jedah]

Screen is great, though as people mentioned, it has some strange lines when viewing dark greys in low light.

Phone calls and texts work perfectly for me. Bigger screen has been great for typing.

I'm stock and rooted, and the performance has been great for me. It can handle just about everything I throw at it w/o any lag at all. I'm sure it'll be good for gaming, too. The one thing I'd look out for is that some games are not compatible on our devices for some reason. I tried to purchase Asphalt during the 10c sale, and it was only compatible w/ a GS2 (my previous phone), but not the SR.

As for issues: The screen issue mentioned above, and on mine, sometimes bluetooth doesn't turn on (though it's been awhile since that's happened).

 

[mc511]

Yeah I have heard of these lines. Are they visible all the time or only when the screen is at low light?

Sent from my Desire HD

 

[Horr1bleK1tten]

Well the galXy note is going to att that would be the best you just have to wait a while to get it

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[dahkillah]

Yeah I have heard of these lines. Are they visible all the time or only when the screen is at low light?

Sent from my Desire HD

low light and extremely dark room.

 

[sherazkhan2]

Got Skyrocket two "days" back, after using iPhone 3GS for nearly 2.5 years, I really liked the 4.5 screen of it and waited for it to go down to 199.99 before buying it. Lot of people who swtiched from iPhone to Skyrocket (or SII) wrote on different forums that they absolutely loved it and were happy that they made the switch, well for me it isn't such a rosy situation.

Things l like about it are Amoled display, 4.5' screen, better colors and resolution (as compared to 3GS), the way you can customize your widget on the screen like Accuweather app which iPhone doesn't have. Sound for songs is better as well. White device itself is beautiful. I like holding it in hand, doesn't feel cheesy or plasticy to me.

Now, things I don't like about it, very first one is that the emails that have images in it, like ad emails from ATT,GAP etc don't get resized as they used to in iPhone, I have to manually resize the emails, text emails have no issues. Would be better if the cell phone could be turned on using any of the buttons on base of phone like home button in the iPhone. Right now have to click the power button on the side, guess I am not used to it right now. With Headphones there is no voice control on the headphones, you can only end the call with the headphones.

I am still thinking about whether to keep this phone or not, still have one day to avoid the 18 dollar upgrade fee or pay 18 bucks for another 25 or so days, I am paying 35 dollars for restocking either way.

 

[randall2580]

Trevalkin - I went to go get the SR at my ATT store and during the holidays they had a promotion buy the GT 8.9 and get the SR free - so basically for 200 more than I was willing to pay for the SR I got both. So far, very happy I did. The GT is very nice - all of the things I like about the SR work great with the GT. There are some goodies about getting the Samsung family together - allshare works with a Samsung TV - allows you to share video, photos, music etc among all 3 that's very cool. The TF Prime is nice if you don't like typing on the screen - but I find the keyboard on the GT very easy to use. Will be upgradable to ICS at some point as well, I haven't had the chance to play with the Prime just read about it - this was more of an impulse buy with the promotion but I have to really stand up and recommend the GT it's a very nice tab, nice size. My only complaint is that Words With Friends doesn't seem to be compatible - but I think its not the GT I think other Honeycomb tabs have similar problems with it.

 

[mc511]

I see, it looks like i may not really care about the lines then unless i am in that extreme circumstance. I dont put my phones light down much nor do i watch videos in the dark. i sleep in the dark. LOL.

I like the front facing camera as well. I havent seen it but i do like the fact that it has one. Overall it seems like a great lte phone. IDK if my area has lte but its nice to be future proof. This should gt ICS i heard rght? Also i will buying off contract since i renewed it last year and wont be able to upgrade till april 2013. Thats a long time for me.

Oh and you can take screen grabs right?

 

[dalvik]

randall2580 thanks a lot for your reply! I returned my Prime last week back to bb store. it was extremely laggy I'm thinking of getting the galaxy tab since I have the Skyrocket and like you said they both gonna work perfectly together. I have to play with it a bit more in the store to decide though. thanks again!

 

[dahkillah]

randall2580 thanks a lot for your reply! I returned my Prime last week back to bb store. it was extremely laggy I'm thinking of getting the galaxy tab since I have the Skyrocket and like you said they both gonna work perfectly together. I have to play with it a bit more in the store to decide though. thanks again!

I remember AT&T offering free Skyrocket when you purchase a Galaxy Tab. You should have took advantage of that.

 

[randall2580]

This should gt ICS i heard rght?

Yes - SR is confirmed to get ICS in 2012.