This is all only based on about eight hours of use. Got mine this morning and there were quite a few people who had similar plans in the store. If you didn't get there right as the store was opening you had maybe an hour wait to get a salesperson to help you. Activation went well. They activated it on another one of my three lines on my family plan and then switched it over from that number to my number. That way I never officially "upgraded" my number and kept my unlimited data. Linked it with my car's bluetooth system and it worked flawlessly. My car even displays emails on the screen and will read them to me (2011 BMW 535xi)! The BT in the Gnex didn't support that feature in the car so this is obviously a better version of BT.
First off the battery takes longer to charge than the Gnex but its power management is excellent and it seems to have no problem transitioning between 4G and WiFi and it never seems to lose its 4G connection when out and about. The screen really is awesome and like another poster, I'm a real snob for white whites (think the Google home page) and this phone's screen is simply perfect in this regard. Compared to the dull, yellowish "whites" on the Gnex this thing is simply in a whole other league. The colors aren't as vibrant as those on the Gnex but I expected that knowing I was moving from an AMOLED screen to a S-LCD one. Blacks are surprisingly good however. The processor seems up to anything I threw at it thus far and is buttery smooth. The keyboard the phone comes with is simply horrible. No two ways about it. I downloaded SwiftKey 3 from Google Play immediately. I'd advise anyone buying this to do likewise ASAP. Infinitely better.
Battery use is superb thus far. I don't pretend to understand the tech aspects of its power management algorithms but I will tell you that they work superbly. Will you get through a full day of really heavy use with the screen on for hours at a time? No. But you should have no problem easily getting through a full day with anything approximating normal use. I already bought an Anker 5600mAh external battery pack on Amazon for $29.98. I think anyone would be well advised to consider a similar purchase just to be on the safe side.
I HATE the volume key and the on/off switch on the top. You can't feel them and they have no travel whatsoever to let you know they've been depressed or not. Horrible ergonomic engineering HTC! Shame on you. The overall build quality is beyond superb. This just shrieks quality and solidity and the juxtaposition of black and red highlights is stunning. Easily the best looking cell phone I have ever seen in the flesh.
The return, home and recent apps keys on the bottom of the phone are somewhat small and are not illuminated so when you're playing with the phone in a room that's not bright you have to simply guess where the back button and home buttons are. In fairness there's really not a lot of room down there so you're bound to hit what you're looking for but they really should be illuminated.
The jury's out about the Sense 4 UI. It will take a bit of getting used to coming from the pure Google Gnex. Right now I'd say I'd reserve judgment as I had become very comfortable and used to the pure Google Gnex. I think there will be a three or four day learning curve to really get up to speed with this Sense UI.
The built-in speaker is simply amazing. I always thought that this was an area that Apple excelled in in their iphones. This built-in speaker is easily the equal of that built into the iphone 5 and may even be better. It goes quite loud with no distortion whatsoever even at max. Quite a dramatic improvement over the Gnex let me tell you!
Haven't played with the camera yet so we'll have to await what others say about this. I'm going to be particularly interested in its low light capabilities without flash given its wide maximum aperture and it's rear illuminated sensor.
Anyway, sorry for rambling. So far the phone has been a joy and I'm really enjoying it. Hope this heps anyone still on the fence.
First off the battery takes longer to charge than the Gnex but its power management is excellent and it seems to have no problem transitioning between 4G and WiFi and it never seems to lose its 4G connection when out and about. The screen really is awesome and like another poster, I'm a real snob for white whites (think the Google home page) and this phone's screen is simply perfect in this regard. Compared to the dull, yellowish "whites" on the Gnex this thing is simply in a whole other league. The colors aren't as vibrant as those on the Gnex but I expected that knowing I was moving from an AMOLED screen to a S-LCD one. Blacks are surprisingly good however. The processor seems up to anything I threw at it thus far and is buttery smooth. The keyboard the phone comes with is simply horrible. No two ways about it. I downloaded SwiftKey 3 from Google Play immediately. I'd advise anyone buying this to do likewise ASAP. Infinitely better.
Battery use is superb thus far. I don't pretend to understand the tech aspects of its power management algorithms but I will tell you that they work superbly. Will you get through a full day of really heavy use with the screen on for hours at a time? No. But you should have no problem easily getting through a full day with anything approximating normal use. I already bought an Anker 5600mAh external battery pack on Amazon for $29.98. I think anyone would be well advised to consider a similar purchase just to be on the safe side.
I HATE the volume key and the on/off switch on the top. You can't feel them and they have no travel whatsoever to let you know they've been depressed or not. Horrible ergonomic engineering HTC! Shame on you. The overall build quality is beyond superb. This just shrieks quality and solidity and the juxtaposition of black and red highlights is stunning. Easily the best looking cell phone I have ever seen in the flesh.
The return, home and recent apps keys on the bottom of the phone are somewhat small and are not illuminated so when you're playing with the phone in a room that's not bright you have to simply guess where the back button and home buttons are. In fairness there's really not a lot of room down there so you're bound to hit what you're looking for but they really should be illuminated.
The jury's out about the Sense 4 UI. It will take a bit of getting used to coming from the pure Google Gnex. Right now I'd say I'd reserve judgment as I had become very comfortable and used to the pure Google Gnex. I think there will be a three or four day learning curve to really get up to speed with this Sense UI.
The built-in speaker is simply amazing. I always thought that this was an area that Apple excelled in in their iphones. This built-in speaker is easily the equal of that built into the iphone 5 and may even be better. It goes quite loud with no distortion whatsoever even at max. Quite a dramatic improvement over the Gnex let me tell you!
Haven't played with the camera yet so we'll have to await what others say about this. I'm going to be particularly interested in its low light capabilities without flash given its wide maximum aperture and it's rear illuminated sensor.
Anyway, sorry for rambling. So far the phone has been a joy and I'm really enjoying it. Hope this heps anyone still on the fence.
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