Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by vardump 4864 days ago
HTC Desire Z (AKA HTC Vision) user here. No ICS firmware. Stuck on Android 2.3.3, so this is my first and last HTC phone - I won't support vendors that don't provide timely updates. 512 MB RAM, but typically only 100-150 MB free, so it constantly reloads/restarts any apps and the HTC Sense UI itself. Google Play in-app purchases don't work.

My next phone will be whatever Google's next flagship phone will be, assuming they fix USB OTG, LTE and microsd-slot. Or some other vendor that is smart enough to use vanilla Android without any "product differentiation". I don't want any custom UIs like HTC Sense or Touchwiz, non-uninstallable bloatware (looking at you Samsung: Kies, ChatON, etc.) and app-breaking UI 'enhancements'.

1 comments

Don't hold your breath for "fixing" LTE and microsd in Nexuses.

LTE is currently a negotiation point in hands of carriers. The price of supporting LTE would be no timely updates (see also Verizon and Sprint Galaxy Nexus). This is something that Google will not compromise about.

MicroSD is a slightly different story, it has several problems:

UX ones:

- most users are confused by two separate storage pools (see the confusion: "I have XY gigabites free on the phone, why can't I install this app?") - the SD card has to be unmounted, when the phone is attached to the computer - that means killing everything, that was launched from the card.

Technical:

- The MicroSD performance is inferior to eMMC.

Legal:

- You have to license FAT32 and exFAT (for SDXC) from Microsoft. (Yes, I know that it is technically possible to use different filesystems with SD cards - but that is a decision that would not go very well with mainstream users who just want to connect the phone to their Windows or Apple computer).

I'm still interested by the fate of LTE in the Nexus 4- it has the hardware for it, but it's manually disabled. When T-Mobile launch their LTE network it'll be interesting to see if any hacks will re-enable it. It could end up being one of the first technically unlicensed LTE devices.