Approach Towards Smartphone Usage/Purchasing.

[Hrishi]

I have a few questions for the smartphone Users in TDF , that I want to know about.[Honestly , No Fanboys]
Most of you are smartphone owners , [some are fanboys too....cough..cough..] I was wondering , what exactly do you guys look forward to ,when comparing/buying or even suggesting a smartphone ??

Okay ,Straight to the Questions..

->What do you look for while purchasing/advicing a Smartphone ???

->Do you care about the OS/Environment the phone is based on or is it just the Raw processing power ???

->Do you care about the majority/quantity of Apps available or do you look for Major and Better apps ???

->DO you feel the need for better optimized OS/Apps or the need for better hardware [what according to you is true] ???

->Have you used multile-smartphone OS , found any major difference in actual experience ???

-> Do you believe in Customizing and getting the most out of your Smartphone , or just rely and draw the entertainment from the Stock.?

->DOes "VFM" means anything to you , ???

-> How much power and processing/utilization do you withdraw from your phone in day to day life , than what you intended for actually while buying.Like considering a Dual-Core , rather than Quad-Core , for the Extra benjamins . Does those Extra 2 Cores actually mean anything to you in daily use ?

->How much are you aware about current gen Smartphone hardware and Software Tech ?? DO you just look at the CPU Cores or frequency to determine the performance or care about the Class of CPU, GPU , RAM speed , bla..blah...???

-> Do you think some companies these days are making more use marketing gimmicks ???

->Is your Smartphone taking over your Laptop/PC gradually for your daily usage ???

->Last but not the least , how much are you satisfied with your current smartphone , for the money spent on it. ? Did you bought it for Show-Off ?? Do You use the actual power only for performing the Benchmark or is it the real world usage ??

Would appreciate your honest and relevent replies to it.
And please do not try to flame any possible war.

And Thanks for sharing your views , if possible do write a few lines about your preferred Phone/OS , Company.
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Edit : Btw , I was wondering is it technically possible and feasible for the Smartphone manufacturing companies , to create Smartphones in bulk that can run multiple OS.
I came across some phones that were actually able to boot multiple OS , [Htc HD , for instance].
Chances are that there can be some driver issues , but is it possible ?? since they all run on pretty similiar Hardware [ARM CPUs].
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[theserpent]

>What do you look for while purchasing/advicing a Smartphone ???
The Ram ,I check if custom roms are avail or it will be,The Processor and yeah the after sales service

->Do you care about the OS/Environment the phone is based on or is it just the Raw processing power ???
Yes.If i go out to buy a phone now it has to be android and at least have 1 Gb ram

->Do you care about the majority/quantity of Apps available or do you look for Major and Better apps ???
Only needed apps if thats what you are asking for

->DO you feel the need for better optimized OS/Apps or the need for better hardware [what according to you is true] ???
AFAIK,Apple has just made up this thing that android doesn't have optimized apps many apps are optimized, And the app automatically adjusts itself in Android

->Have you used multile-smartphone OS , found any major difference in actual experience ???
NO never used

-> Do you believe in Customizing and getting the most out of your Smartphone , or just rely and draw the entertainment from the Stock.?
Stock-after 6 months-custom roms

->DOes "VFM" means anything to you , ???
Yes

-> How much power and processing/utilization do you withdraw from your phone in day to day life , than what you intended for actually while buying.Like considering a Dual-Core , rather than Quad-Core , for the Extra benjamins . Does those Extra 2 Cores actually mean anything to you in daily use ?
Well, Extra 2 cores may not help you much in Browsing, but in the long run apps and the new android os will be more demanding so Yes I will be looking for a quad core, But if theres a dual core in that budget with other better specs ill consider that.Take L9 for example

->How much are you aware about current gen Smartphone hardware and Software Tech ?? DO you just look at the CPU Cores or frequency to determine the performance or care about the Class of CPU, GPU , RAM speed , bla..blah...???
6 on 10

-> Do you think some companies these days are making more use marketing gimmicks ???
Yes..Heard of apple?Micromax?Samsung?HTC? Ahh crap most of the companies do it...check the newspaper there will be adds buy this 3D Android Phone.Where 3d is the gimmik

->Is your Smartphone taking over your Laptop/PC gradually for your daily usage ???\
No,


->Last but not the least , how much are you satisfied with your current smartphone , for the money spent on it. ? Did you bought it for Show-Off ?? Do You use the actual power only for performing the Benchmark or is it the real world usage ??
Currently have a Nokia E6, Not at all satisifed with it.It lags,touch screen is not responsive sometimes

 

[Anorion]

->What do you look for while purchasing/advicing a Smartphone ???
purchasing and advice are two diff things, but mostly price, features and build quality

->Do you care about the OS/Environment the phone is based on or is it just the Raw processing power ???
yep, OS more than processing power. This is because at least for me, the OS is a long time choice/ commitment.

->Do you care about the majority/quantity of Apps available or do you look for Major and Better apps ???
depends on who wants it, absolute yes for myself

->DO you feel the need for better optimized OS/Apps or the need for better hardware [what according to you is true] ???
for droids, def yeah.

->Have you used multile-smartphone OS , found any major difference in actual experience ???
yes. steady stream of niggles if you are used to one and are using another. there is a huge gap in engagement and involvement in android, iDevices are used instead of other devices, such as consoles and laptops. Not so much android. Im talking about the majority of low end droids here. Whatever it's limitations are (bluetooth, animated bg, file manager etc) Apple can cover the gap with Android in one software update, the Play store will require curation and many years of hard work before it gets as good as Apple. Another difference is a huge hesitation to install or use apps in Android. On Apple, there is an app for every web site you frequent, Droid guys are more likely to use a browser or RSS feeds, or configure their e-mail to get the news updates, but avoid using the damn app. Another difference is too many apps such as "indian sex stories" and "jumping boobs" in the Play store, even when casually browsing. Once the same app is loaded though, first to admit that there is not much difference. Lane splitter is much the same on a low end mmx, a two year old HTC Wildfire, and a latest gen iPhone. A few other differences are game center, podcasts and the itunes music library. Find the dictionary and universal search handy as well.

-> Do you believe in Customizing and getting the most out of your Smartphone , or just rely and draw the entertainment from the Stock.?
uh. nope, don't require animated wallpapers and dynamic weather widgets, but themes are cool. have to use stock because some apps I frequently use ban jailbroken devices / devices with certain piracy apps (for ex: IAP cracker)

->DOes "VFM" means anything to you , ???
yes, great devices are specific price points. Defy, Nexus, Active, Note 2 only so far. otherwise, generally, don't think androids are worth any amount of money, and iOS offers far more VFM, if only because of resale value.

-> How much power and processing/utilization do you withdraw from your phone in day to day life , than what you intended for actually while buying.Like considering a Dual-Core , rather than Quad-Core , for the Extra benjamins . Does those Extra 2 Cores actually mean anything to you in daily use ?
The battery is pretty good, but I go through 3-5 charge cycles every day. It's much more than what I intended while buying. guess some apps use my proccy to it's limits, but I donno.

->How much are you aware about current gen Smartphone hardware and Software Tech ?? DO you just look at the CPU Cores or frequency to determine the performance or care about the Class of CPU, GPU , RAM speed , bla..blah...???
ok, I look for the open gl es version, and the arm version of the device (v6, v7 etc)... as I find these are the cut-offs used by app and game developers when upgrading their apps

-> Do you think some companies these days are making more use marketing gimmicks ???
all of them. the gimmick is mostly "compare ourselves favorably to apple". HTC, nokia, Samsung are all responsible for this, probably leading the way for their fanboys. Specs are a gimmick as well.

->Is your Smartphone taking over your Laptop/PC gradually for your daily usage ???
gradually, lol, it's totally taken over. Don't need PC. Don't need physical files.

->Last but not the least , how much are you satisfied with your current smartphone , for the money spent on it. ? Did you bought it for Show-Off ?? Do You use the actual power only for performing the Benchmark or is it the real world usage ??
More than satisfied. Didn't get it for show off (apple here). Earlier used to believe iOS were toys, got gifted an iPod, used only free apps onlyr. Started warwalking as a consequence, and found free wi-fi networks all over the place. After almost a year started spending on paid apps (first one was orbital). After a few months, I deleted all my free apps and started using paid apps only. Then I got an iPhone, so yeah, used it for free first before deciding to get it.

 

[Hrishi]

Thanks for sharing your views , "TheSerpent" and "Anorion".Looking forward to more of you.

Okay , here's mine.
->What do you look for while purchasing/advicing a Smartphone ???
While purchasing : I look for the best thing I can get within the budget.It goes in the order: Durability/Build Quality>Real Life Performance>Battery Life>Display Quality>Ease of Use>Customization>RAM.

->Do you care about the OS/Environment the phone is based on or is it just the Raw processing power ???
More biased towards the OS , since no matter how much you throw at the hardware , in the end its the UI/Apps , i.e. the OS you have to interact with.An optimized OS can improve the experience , but a buggy/unstable OS will simply spoil the fun , no matter how powerful the hardware is.
Processing power only matters till the extent that it shouldn't bottleneck the OS capability to run general and day to day applications. Not interested in Benchmark results , they are mostly for Fanboys and testing.

->Do you care about the majority/quantity of Apps available or do you look for Major and Better apps ???
Presence of Quality , optimized and Useful apps , that can make use of my hardware properly. I hate the Spam and prank Apps at playstore. Really annoying.

->DO you feel the need for better optimized OS/Apps or the need for better hardware [what according to you is true] ???
Need for the most possible optimized OS/Apps. Hardware is of no use if the app/os is unstable or poor.

->Have you used multile-smartphone OS , found any major difference in actual experience ???
Yes! Have Used almost all the Symbian Series 60 phones , Android GB/ICS/JB.
The difference was highly noticeable. Symbian phones seemed better at being a true phone and communication device to me , however the interface was poor, Hardware was utilized well though.. Whereas I find Android good as a open-source Smartphone OS but still it doesn't fits the "Phone" compared to a symbian device. Android is highly customizable according me .

-> Do you believe in Customizing and getting the most out of your Smartphone , or just rely and draw the entertainment from the Stock.?
Yes , not the Stock. I love to customize my Smartphone upto a great extent and draw every penny out of it.
Not interested much in not-voiding warranty.

->DOes "VFM" means anything to you , ???
The most important thing for me while buying a gadget is VFM , be it smartphone or w/ever.I don't have extra pennies lying around to spend. So I use it carefully to buy only what I will use.

-> How much power and processing/utilization do you withdraw from your phone in day to day life , than what you intended for actually while buying.Like considering a Dual-Core , rather than Quad-C50ore , for the Extra benjamins . Does those Extra 2 Cores actually mean anything to you in daily use ?
Every Possible Bit out of It. For e.g. I have 800MB ram in my phone. I use around 500MB RAM at once on average.
Sometime I Even try to overclock the CPU to get the Extra performance it can deliver.Tweak the Settings and ROMs to get the best it can give.

->How much are you aware about current gen Smartphone hardware and Software Tech ?? DO you just look at the CPU Cores or frequency to determine the performance or care about the Class of CPU, GPU , RAM speed , bla..blah...???
Have basic information about various CPU's , GPUs , SoCs, types of OS and their flaws , application design , etc.
CPU Gen>CPU Freq>GPU Cores>CPU Freq>RAM Freq.

-> Do you think some companies these days are making more use marketing gimmicks ???
Definitely , they are just trying to fool the customers. SamSung is at the top of my list . TBH , I consider Sony at the bottom in this list, they usually don't fool the customer.
They are simply trying to sell their hardware , Pump up their hardware specs. every other month and decrease the build quality. I want my phone to last long , and stay strong. And not to top the benchmarks always.The companies are simply trying to Fuel the Fanboys and non-techie users.

->Is your Smartphone taking over your Laptop/PC gradually for your daily usage ???
Hard to say for me , but they have their own usage. But mostly I prefer a much more portable solution , so I always keep myself equipped with a Smartphone. But it hasn't taken place of my Laptop/Desktop.
The Webtop /Lapdock , stuff in smartphones/tabs really interests me and chances are that If I get a powerful phone supporting this feature , I will go with it , instead of carrying my Netbook(12").

->Last but not the least , how much are you satisfied with your current smartphone , for the money spent on it. ? Did you bought it for Show-Off ?? Do You use the actual power only for performing the Benchmark or is it the real world usage ??
Having Motorola Atrix 4g, right now .Well , its currently good enough for satisfying most of my requirements and I see no reason to Upgrade to a Quad Core phone.That will be a stupid of me ,spending thousands of extra bucks going for an upgrade at this time.