Android and wp8

By patseguin
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Grand Master

patseguin Global Moderator

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Now that I'm pretty much an android convert, I wondered how the community felt about windows phone 8, more specifically the lumia 920. When I went to AT&T for my Android device they pretty much shoved the 920 down my throat. While I'm sure it's a great device, I'm just curious what android loyalists think about it.

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Grand Master

+InsaneNutter MVC

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Personally i'm not keen on the Metro style interface used on Windows Phone devices, i have tried to like it however it just annoys me and feels dull / lifeless in my opinion.

There is nothing wrong with Windows Phone, i'm sure some pretty good devices exist, however its just not for me.

I like the freedom you get with Android devices to customise all aspects of the os, flash custom roms and generally tinker / customise the phone as much as you want.

Grand Master

+InsaneNutter MVC

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I might be sorry I asked, but but what is switching rom's?

You can flash a different rom to your phone, this could be a newer version of Android, add new features that were not present in the manufacturers rom for your phone or totally change the look and feel of your phone.

A great custom rom for various Android devices is MIUI.

Grand Master

patseguin Global Moderator

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You can flash a different rom to your phone, this could be a newer version of Android, add new features that were not present in the manufacturers rom for your phone or totally change the look and feel of your phone.

A great custom rom for various Android devices is MIUI.

Very interesting. I have a Nexus 4 and a Nexus 7. What would the benfit of using that ROM on my phone or tablet be? Aesthetics? speed?

Grand Master

Detection

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Very interesting. I have a Nexus 4 and a Nexus 7. What would the benfit of using that ROM on my phone or tablet be? Aesthetics? speed?

Both, generally those are the main things the devs aim for, along with removing bloatware and improving stability etc

XDA Forums is a great place for custom ROMs

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Luis Mazza

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Very interesting. I have a Nexus 4 and a Nexus 7. What would the benfit of using that ROM on my phone or tablet be? Aesthetics? speed?

Both, generally those are the main things the devs aim for, along with removing bloatware and improving stability etc

XDA Forums is a great place for custom ROMs

I think +pat already has the newest and best functionality from his devices, as they're recently released by Google with the newest available software.

Of course there are some bugs, but the dev community has nothing better for him at the moment, unless he wants to root his device.

Anyway, as he does not even know that rom is, I don't think he can benefit from that at this moment.

Also, I have a Galaxy Note 2 and Samsung has done a great job with software now, very sophisticated and closed, and it is getting harder for the dev community to improve that, competing with a huge company with billions to invest and resources to offer, compared to a group of independent devs.

I'm not really dismissing the indie dev community, but it is just that I feel they are losing appeal ATM. :)

Grand Master

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I think +pat already has the newest and best functionality from his devices, as they're recently released by Google with the newest available software.

Of course there are some bugs, but the dev community has nothing better for him at the moment, unless he wants to root his device.

Anyway, as he does not even know that rom is, I don't think he can benefit from that at this moment.

Also, I have a Galaxy Note 2 and Samsung has done a great job with software now, very sophisticated and closed, and it is getting harder for the dev community to improve that, competing with a huge company with billions to invest and resources to offer, compared to a group of independent devs.

I'm not really dismissing the indie dev community, but it is just that I feel their losing appeal ATM. :)

I have an ASUS Transformer and their own stock ROM was buggy and almost unusable, XDA ported JellyBean and is easily the best experience I have had since getting my tablet, 100% bugs that ASUS failed to fix, XDA fixed

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Luis Mazza

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I have an ASUS Transformer and their own stock ROM was buggy and almost unusable, XDA ported JellyBean and is easily the best experience I have had since getting my tablet, 100% bugs that ASUS failed to fix, XDA fixed

Yes, but the Transformer is not so new compared to his Google branded cutting-edge devices.

Maybe I'm actually arguing towards Samsung's and Google's newer devices.

Grand Master

Detection

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Yes, but the Transformer is not so new compared to his Google branded cutting-edge devices.

Maybe I'm actually arguing towards Samsung's and Google's newer devices.

:) I wasn't trying to argue or disprove anything you said, just commenting my experience with XDA, stock is probably great for most people, just nice to have devs when you need them like in my case

I flashed a custom ROM to my Lumia and fairly quickly returned to stock, stock was a much nicer experience

Proficient

yowanvista

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Very interesting. I have a Nexus 4 and a Nexus 7. What would the benfit of using that ROM on my phone or tablet be? Aesthetics? speed?

I wouldn't recommend using custom ROMs on your Nexus devices, at least not at this time. Custom rom makers have yet to sync their roms with the latest Android versions, the Cyanogenmod team has barely even started working on CM10.1 and so does MIUI, you may use a 'tweaked' version of your stock rom or any rom based on the stock images but shall you use an other roms you'll be facing some nasty bugs especially considering that the Nexus 4 is a rather new device. There is hardly even any performance difference between stock Android 4.2 and other aftermarket roms.

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Luis Mazza

Posted
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:) I wasn't trying to argue or disprove anything you said, just commenting my experience with XDA, stock is probably great for most people, just nice to have devs when you need them like in my case

I flashed a custom ROM to my Lumia and fairly quickly returned to stock, stock was a much nicer experience

Yeah :) I was on CM9 on my note 1 and then Samsung catched up with real nice features and I came back. But indie devs are much faster on fixing small bugs. I'm also glad they exist and manage to spare their time even if they don't get any money for that. ;)

Grand Master

tsupersonic

Posted
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I love WP8 as a mobile OS. I think it's a great alternative for people who are looking to buying an iPhone. Personally, neither WP8 or iOS cater to my needs, and Android has introduced me to certain features that I now can't live without.

Grand Master

Jeston Veteran

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I wouldn't recommend using custom ROMs on your Nexus devices, at least not at this time. Custom rom makers have yet to sync their roms with the latest Android versions, the Cyanogenmod team has barely even started working on CM10.1 and so does MIUI, you may use a 'tweaked' version of your stock rom or any rom based on the stock images but shall you use an other roms you'll be facing some nasty bugs especially considering that the Nexus 4 is a rather new device. There is hardly even any performance difference between stock Android 4.2 and other aftermarket roms.

I might agree with you if you're talking big custom rom makers like CM and roms based on CM, but in most cases rom devs start making from AOSP source as soon as it's dropped. Most of these devs are also able to fix bugs before Google releases a new update (ie the December bug) and are able to add new little features without detracting too much from being an AOSP rom. Bottom line is there are plenty of reasons to use a custom rom on Nexus devices, though maybe not something like CM right away.

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