Jump to content

Android newbie first impressions


Guest TangerineTractor

Recommended Posts

Guest TangerineTractor

I've used smartphones for about ten years now, starting on the original XDA and MDAs made by HTC running windows mobile 5 and 6. For the past couple of years I've been stuck with a Blackberry issed by my employers. Yuk.

Having bought my wife a Galaxy Ace and been quite impressed, I thought I'd buy myself a budget Android phone for a bit of a learning experience.

So far, all going well. Im impressed. The G300 on 2.3.6 worked very smoothly - colleagues in the office were surprised how good it was for the price. Yesterday I bit the bullet and upgraded to ICS. I've got stockICS on it, and installed Apex launcher - it's really very smooth and responsive, and enables me to hide all the system Apps I don't want and can't uninstall. Works better than the stock launcher, and much faster than Go Launcher. I've also experimented with browsers, and found that Opera Mobile (I was always abig fan of mini on WM6 and Blackberry) is the only browser that does text wrapping properly on ICS.

I also sourced a decent hard cover - took some digging out, but I found this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271003712553?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 for just over £3 delivered, and it arrived in under a week. It's actually very smooth and sleek, and looks good and unobtrusive on the phone.

Another big plus on the G300 is the usb charger being at the bottom - that's enabled me to convert a car holder with a power supply superglued into the right position such that I can just drop it straight in.

So I would like to say a big thanks to the contributors Ive used so far - the step-by-step instructiions and guides have been excellent - your efforts are appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest weckl

That case is good but I recommend you Nillkin brand or IMAK brand. If you a search in google and write: G300 Nillkin case you will find how cool they are in comparison with standard case. I also consider a mistake you upgrade to ICS. I think Gingerbread respond much better. I recommend you to downgrade.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest kyan31

Don't downgrade. It is very risky and unnecessary. Gingerbread is only faster as it has openGL, but the leaked ICS roms don't (yet). When the full ICS OTA update comes out, ICS will be faster. I recommend waiting as the update is on its way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest dragpyre

Don't downgrade. It is very risky and unnecessary. Gingerbread is only faster as it has openGL, but the leaked ICS roms don't (yet). When the full ICS OTA update comes out, ICS will be faster. I recommend waiting as the update is on its way.

I've downgraded using Huawei Middle package more than once with no loss of IMEI and no issues. The only issue I've had is no toggles etc. for B882/B885/B892.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest TangerineTractor

Case took 5 days to UK - it's absoulutely fine - i looked at the nillkin one, but decided this would be good enough, and it is.

I thought I'd made a mistake going to ICS, but after a bit of tidying up, it's asily as good as gingerbread in terms of responsiveness - I'm running the stock ICS at the moment, rooted, cleaned out as much rubbish as I could, put on Apex launcher makes it much more responsive. Wouldn't go back to gingerbread but will up to custom roms when there's one that supports exchange email!

The only thing I really don;t like is the insbility to turn off the led when charging - it means I can't see notifications in the car, and I have to put it face down on my bedside table at night.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Peninsula

The only thing I really don;t like is the insbility to turn off the led when charging - it means I can't see notifications in the car, and I have to put it face down on my bedside table at night.

Install Light Flow Lite (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rageconsulting.android.lightflowlite). This app will override the Huawei control of the LED.

You can turn the LED off entirely, or have it flash blue for gmail, green for text, etc. Totally customisable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest TangerineTractor

Install Light Flow Lite (https://play.google....d.lightflowlite). This app will override the Huawei control of the LED.

You can turn the LED off entirely, or have it flash blue for gmail, green for text, etc. Totally customisable.

Cheers for that, works OK - not perfect, but getting there.

Now I need to find out how to stop the data warning whenever you go out of wifi range.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Peninsula

I dont get this message popping up much. I think if you turn wifi off, and only then turn on 3G it doesn't pop up (rather than having them both on and turning off wifi). I might be wrong on that.

There is a fix I think somewhere on these forums involving changing a true value to false deep in the build.prop or something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest TangerineTractor

I get it every time I leave the house or the office. Very irritating. I have no intention of turning wifi or 3g data on or off - they stay on all the time - they did on my old Windows Mobile devices, they did on my Blackberry.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest TangerineTractor

Change ro.config.hw_RemindWifiToPdp=true to false in your build.prop

As a newbie to Android (but an IT techy) how do you do that?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest TangerineTractor

the build.prop file is located in the system folder. You would need root to change it.

Cheers. Sussed it. (Google). Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Hogweed

Also some apps have a "safer" build.prop editor if you don't want the hassle of remounting /system and manually editing build.prop being careful not to accidentally muck up anything else in the file. The free version of ROM Toolbox has such an editor (if you are rooted).

Edited by Hogweed
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest TangerineTractor

Also some apps have a "safer" build.prop editor if you don't want the hassle of remounting /system and manually editing build.prop being careful not to accidentally muck up anything else in the file. The free version of ROM Toolbox has such an editor (if you are rooted).

I tried Astro, was bombing out. So used Root Browser Lite, found the build.prop, gave myself write permission and editted it no problems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Hogweed

I tried Astro, was bombing out. So used Root Browser Lite, found the build.prop, gave myself write permission and editted it no problems.

Yes it is perfectly safe as long as you are careful. You just have to be absolutely sure you don't accidentally change some bit of the file as you are scrolling through and break something critical and render the phone unbootable. There has been at least one report of someone doing that in this forum. You can also copy the file to a PC and edit it there before copying it back. With ROM Toolbox you only open one value field for editing at a time so it is impossible to mass delete half the file by mistake or similar. ROM Toolbox will also let you at it with a text editor as well if you really want or need to.

Edited by Hogweed
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest TangerineTractor

Change doesn;t seem to have had any effect. Tried ROM Toolbox too, it says it's set to false but the message still comes up. I'll try a battery pull, see if it works after that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.