I dunno about unlocked but yes you can use it on the same gsm bands as AT&T and maybe even T-Mobile. My friend has a HTC Rezound, and he was able with an app he downloaded from the market to switch to GSM bands from LTE, and a patch he installed(to get SMS texting(sending as receiving was natively) to full work. Tested it out on T-Mobile USA with HSDPA, and then on 3 UK and Orange Ireland fully working. It was natively unlocked, I would think the DNA maybe the same since the Rezound is too?
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Droid DNA
- Thread starter vmachiel
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I dunno about unlocked but yes you can use it on the same gsm bands as AT&T and maybe even T-Mobile. My friend has a HTC Rezound, and he was able with an app he downloaded from the market to switch to GSM bands from LTE, and a patch he installed(to get SMS texting(sending as receiving was natively) to full work. Tested it out on T-Mobile USA with HSDPA, and then on 3 UK and Orange Ireland fully working. It was natively unlocked, I would think the DNA maybe the same since the Rezound is too?
While I absolutely love this phone, isn't 1080p reaching a point of diminishing returns? What I'm more worried about is that not nearly enough apps are optimized for a high resolution (besides text) and I want to wait until the software is completely up to sync with hardware. Same thing with Nexus 10
I read in the Nexus 4 review that it records 1080p video at an encoding rate of 12 Mbps which is 1.5 MB/s. Thus for each gigabyte of space (1024 MB) you can record 683 seconds or around 11 minutes of video. Each hour of video would take about 5.3 GB. This could be significantly extended by reducing the recording resolution to 720p or lower.
An 8 megapixel compressed JPEG takes between 1-2 MB of space depending on quality settings and the visual complexity of the photo. Thus each GB can store 500-1000 photos.
If you mainly use the storage for taking video and photos 16 GB should be enough for anyone (even 8 GB would be manageable). The problem comes when you want to store massive amounts of music or films on the phone.
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My personal music collection is all high quality/cd quality downloads and rips. However since I was using the One X I really only use Spotify and stream from Google Music now and it works for me. I luckily do have unlimited data though, when I had an iPhone it was always 32gb/64gb and I carried most of my music on my device. My music collection is well over 100gb, I obviously don't need all of it but I like to carry a nice chunk because I mainly just hit shuffle and let it go.
I frequently flashed ROMs and made backups on my One X and that's where the low storage was becoming a pain. I had to manage what was on my device pretty frequently. Now that I have a Note 2 though I stuck in a 16gb card that I had laying around and it's been wonderful to have more storage again. I'm gonna pick up a 32gb card now so I can load more music and download some games now that I have the space for it.
So it looks like the battery life is average based on the early reviews. So the only downsides to the phone are no removable battery or storage, 16GB memory, and HTC Sense.
I think I'll wait for it to get rooted and developers to flash a stock ROM on it before even thinking about buying it. It will be a beast of a phone.
I think I'll wait for it to get rooted and developers to flash a stock ROM on it before even thinking about buying it. It will be a beast of a phone.
I have never had a smartphone and am looking to buy my first. I was ready to buy a new iPhone 5 but the backorders have kept me from getting one yet. Would this DNA be a better option, I recently found out that my 1st gen tv can't do airplay like I thought and that was a main reason I was looking at the iPhone.
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There are a couple different apps that will allow you to use an Android with an AppleTV for Airplay. I can't remember which right now though.
Oh god, just when you thought HTC couldn't find a worse spot for the sleep/wake button, they decided to put it at the top center of the device. The sleep/wake button at the top right is already hard enough to reach for large devices.
I don't get the rationale behind centering it, making it even harder.
The Verge quotes it best:
Power / sleep / unlock buttons have always been hit or miss on HTC’s smartphones — the Windows Phone 8X’s power button is nearly unusable, and I’m not a fan of the placement of the button on the One X — but the location of the Droid DNA’s is a new low. Or a new high, if you will, since it’s located in the middle of the top edge of the phone, which might be the most awkward place it could be on a phone of this size. There is no easy way to press the button without shifting the phone in your hand and assuming a ridiculous claw grip with your index finger on top of the device. Somebody really needs to tell HTC’s designers that power buttons work best on the side when phones have 4.3-inch or larger displays. Motorola, Samsung, and LG have all figured this out, so it’s time that HTC got on board.
I've been saying this for ages about the HTC One X.
I don't get the rationale behind centering it, making it even harder.
The Verge quotes it best:
Power / sleep / unlock buttons have always been hit or miss on HTC’s smartphones — the Windows Phone 8X’s power button is nearly unusable, and I’m not a fan of the placement of the button on the One X — but the location of the Droid DNA’s is a new low. Or a new high, if you will, since it’s located in the middle of the top edge of the phone, which might be the most awkward place it could be on a phone of this size. There is no easy way to press the button without shifting the phone in your hand and assuming a ridiculous claw grip with your index finger on top of the device. Somebody really needs to tell HTC’s designers that power buttons work best on the side when phones have 4.3-inch or larger displays. Motorola, Samsung, and LG have all figured this out, so it’s time that HTC got on board.
I've been saying this for ages about the HTC One X.
Damn, now I don't know if I should get this or an iPhone 5 as my first ever smartphone...
You should consider the Nexus 4. It is currently in short supply but you should be able to order one in a few weeks.
Damn, now I don't know if I should get this or an iPhone 5 as my first ever smartphone...
An iPhone might be a a good phone for someone who's never used a smartphone since it's pretty simple to use. If you like options and features and the ability to customise your device, nexus 4 would be a good choice.
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No 4G LTE, just hspa+.
I am on Verizon in the Washington DC area so we have decent 4G coverage. I always liked the iPhone I just hate to get stuck with a small screen.
If you want an easy to use phone with a large screen and LTE you should consider the Lumia 920 which uses the Windows Phone 8 OS. It might have fewer advanced features and options compared to Android, but the user experience is very slick.
Went to play with this phone the morning it came out on Wednesday and was very disappointed. I was prepared to return my iPhone 5 and get the DNA but I didn't. The display is amazing, its a great sized phone and its lighter than I expected. However, the problem was (as it always is with Android) Sense and Android apps. I will preface this by saying this was a brand new DNA. It had only been set up for 10 minutes and the employees had only tested a few pics they took. So it wasn't like someone had abused the demo model already. Whenever I went to the camera or into any app and then hit the home button, there was a good 2 second lag. I could see the home screen but it was frozen and then would come to life a few seconds later and would work just fine. That could have been the weather animation on the home screen, but I didn't like it.
Then there were the apps. I logged into Facebook and right away my newsfeed appeared but scrolling was painfully slow, even after everything loaded up, it was just slow and lagged all over the place. Opening a photo lagged, trying to comment a pic lagged, even liking a pic lagged. Not good. Pulled my iPhone 5 out to see if it was a network issue maybe but nope, my iPhone scrolled wonderfully as usual with not a hint of lag. Same thing with the NFL Fantasy app. Lagged horribly just on the homepage. I didn't even bother going into my match ups.
Next I downloaded speedtest on the DNA and gave it a run. While it got a respectable 12Mbps down and 4Mbps up, the test on my iPhone 5 at the same time showed a 22Mbps down and 7Mbps up. Same network, same LTE, same building and same server from Speedtest. I wasn't too surprised by this as I tried a few weeks ago with the Galaxy S3, Droid Razr HD and Razr Maxx HD in the same store and my iPhone 5 was constantly 8-10Mbps faster down and a good 2-3 faster up. Granted, when I opened websites at the same time on both phones, my iPhone was only a second or two faster loading them but I expect MUCH more from a powerhouse quad core processor like the S4 Pro, it should have been faster than my iPhone but it wasn't. Pretty sad because I had high hopes for this phone, oh well.
Then there were the apps. I logged into Facebook and right away my newsfeed appeared but scrolling was painfully slow, even after everything loaded up, it was just slow and lagged all over the place. Opening a photo lagged, trying to comment a pic lagged, even liking a pic lagged. Not good. Pulled my iPhone 5 out to see if it was a network issue maybe but nope, my iPhone scrolled wonderfully as usual with not a hint of lag. Same thing with the NFL Fantasy app. Lagged horribly just on the homepage. I didn't even bother going into my match ups.
Next I downloaded speedtest on the DNA and gave it a run. While it got a respectable 12Mbps down and 4Mbps up, the test on my iPhone 5 at the same time showed a 22Mbps down and 7Mbps up. Same network, same LTE, same building and same server from Speedtest. I wasn't too surprised by this as I tried a few weeks ago with the Galaxy S3, Droid Razr HD and Razr Maxx HD in the same store and my iPhone 5 was constantly 8-10Mbps faster down and a good 2-3 faster up. Granted, when I opened websites at the same time on both phones, my iPhone was only a second or two faster loading them but I expect MUCH more from a powerhouse quad core processor like the S4 Pro, it should have been faster than my iPhone but it wasn't. Pretty sad because I had high hopes for this phone, oh well.
That's sense for you....stock android FTW. Sorry the DNA didn't work out for you.
Something must have been terribly wrong with that device. Facebook shouldn't lag on a device like that. It runs perfectly smooth on my year old Captivate so it's pretty weird that an app like Facebook would lag on a device like the DNA.
Sorry to hear that your experience with the DNA went so poorly. I have owned one since launch day and haven't seen any of the issues that you are seeing. My wife owns an iPhone 5 and, when I do the speed test on both phones, they are comparable (as they should be ). And I have not experienced any of the lag issues that you have witnessed. I guess Verizon does something weird to phones when they are put into demonstration mode for store use.
GL
just got this phone today I'm actually on it right now and this thing is a beast! Getting over 8000 in Quadrantand close to 1900 in Geekbench. Its blazing fast and the displayis just awesome, even better than the iPhone 5 that I had. Perfect size for me as the Note 2 was a bit too large and oddly shaped. Great phone to check out if you are on Verizon.
Glad to hear you like it! I just returned my nexus 4 and previously returned 3 different iPhones (don't ask) lol. Any battery life impressions yet?