5 inches...
...makes that girl look tiny! ;-)
Mercedes vs BMW, Boeing vs Airbus, Asda vs Tesco: the world is full of directly competing commercial entities locked in a bitter struggle for market share. In Korea, Samsung and LG go head-to-head in much the same way, so it's no surprise that LG has cooked up a rival to Samsung’s Galaxy Note. LG Vu The LG Vu doesn't seem so …
I'm dating a Korean gril at the moment - her phone of choice is a Galaxy Note. I've come to realise that *any* photo of her where she's holding the phone in shot has the effect of making her look like a midget holding a normal sized phone - amusing, but kind of wierd. Particularly when the parents ask "have you got a photo of her?"
Interesting that they showcase "Dead Trigger" so prominently on their apps screen, the very game whose developer complained loudly of piracy in Android (for a 69p app, no less) and in the end decided to make it free and rely exclusively on in-app purchases. - Source
Should prove a good sign for this one...
I used to feel that this was a deal-breaker for me. However, for the past year I haven't removed the microSD card from my phone because WiFi transfer is fast enough for pictures and music files. With my Asus Transformer, I only remove the SD card if I want to quickly load up an 800MB video file.
"However, for the past year I haven't removed the microSD card from my phone because WiFi transfer is fast enough for pictures and music files."
I don't think I have ever removed the SD card from any of my phones to transfer data to it.
However, I still don't want a phone without a card slow, because:
a) With a card I can upgrade when I want. Without, handset upgrade time.
b) With a card, I can upgrade handset and not have to copy all my data over. Without, there's a lot of work to move the data over
c) With a card, if the card fails I just buy a new one (£15?). With internal memory only, I have to buy a new phone (£350).
d) With a card, I can pop the card out to back up the data quickly. Without, backing up several GB over Wifi/USB is slooow, and over Wifi normally fails before it's complete.
A separate memory card is just more flexible.
Calling it out of proportion and ugly is a matter of personal taste, don't bother other people with your foibles?
And "too small" is kinda subjective, a lot of people might call it too big.
Either way, the real reason why the headline "Note2 meets its match" is poorly chosen is the fact that the VU seems to have no pen.
There's been plenty of failed bigger phones, like Dell streak and various others. What makes Samsung's Note unique is not the specific size, but the innovative pen capabilities...
There was never too much wrong with the cheaper iPads using 1024X768 too.
It means that things are naturally more finger friendly so in fact cheap and cheerful can in fact be better.
There was always some truth in the cheap and cheerful features of the iPad been praised alongside the high tech bits of it. That old iPad screen was one, 1024 X 768 is finger friendly cool.
So at 5" 1024x768 is a good and very web friendly compromise
Having an iPad (4:3 screen) as well as an iPhone 4s and a BB PlayBook (3:2 and 16:9 screens), I find the former aspect ratio better suited to browsing, photos and apps in general.
Now that, does not mean that I think this Vu is a very practical phone. But coming from an Xperia X10 mini, I guess it's normal to find most current smartphones too big.
One of the reasons I don't buy Apple kit, and I won't buy this one either.
No changeable battery - no sale. No microSD slot - no sale either.
Most other things are negotiable...
Well, I will also not buy any gear with a patented proprietary connector called "Lightning" where a standard micro USB port would have done the job, just so the manufacturer can control who gets to make peripherals and can extort those companies for cash. Then they add a chip to prevent you from being able to use your own choice of peripherals on it.
"That's not how it works.
An button that's 0.5 cm across on iPad 1 is still 0.5 cm across on iPad 3."
But there is no squinty text on the iPad 1, not to mention that your exisiting iPhone apps are purposely limited to make you need a separate new tablet app.
What gadget an app runs on, it should really just adapt.
...with their "slow" upgrade cycles then?
I don't get why Manufacturers can't just build their Android alterations in the form of one or more apps that can be easily uninstalled and don't impede updating to the next version of Android whenever the customer feels like it.
Unlike WindPhone, Android is very malleable and user customizable without having to mess with the foundation.
So the only reason I can see why manufacturers would want to make this mess is to keep people from using their little apps on other brand's phones, and maybe to keep their hardware drivers proprietary. Like Samsung doesn't give out their drivers or any info in regards to them, making it needlessly difficult for people to create custom roms based on newer versions of Android.
Android fragmentation is really manufacturer's fault. If every device was offered with a 'Nexus' option of just getting clean Android, I think 90% of phones would sell with that option. Software customization seems overrated by manufacturers, the differentiation happens through hardware - as it should be, really.
If Sony slaps a nice, likeable media interface on their phones, but is trying to sell me last year's chippery for this year's premium prices, it only takes one somewhat informed person to prevent the rest of their family from falling for that.