LTE Keyboard phone to replace Epic

[TexasAggie97]

Originally Posted by gTen

New QWERTY phone from Motorola:

New Motorola slider for Sprint surfaces with Android 4.0, many mysteries - Engadget

hopefully it is a good one, and now that google owns Motorola they won't lock bootloaders.

Saw this in ENR last week. I am hopefull that Sprint will include it in their availible phones but sad about giving up my Epic running SleeperROM!

Sent from my SPH-D700 on the PPCGeeks App

[christophocles]

Originally Posted by EyeB

with how thin the phones are now, I really haven't had much problems just buying a phone case with a keyboard on it

these are for iphone, but you can find one for other sizes with enough looking
Amazon.com: Buletooth Wireless Rubberized Hard Shell Slider QWERTY Keyboard Case for iPhone 4: Cell Phones & Accessories

Amazon.com: Dobi Design Apple iPhone 4 Bluetooth Keyboard Case with Stand: Computers & Accessories

edit: forgot to mention but should be obvious... phones that are curved on the back have a hard time with these cases...

This looks like the way to go, unfortunately.. Phone manufacturers have their head up their rear end and will not make a device that will satisfy us, unfortunately.. And there's always a vocal group of people who will B*TCH incessantly about the fact that their carrier got the version of xyz phone with a hw kb and their girly wrists are too weak to handle the few extra grams of the pro model. I think Sprint and Samsung were both soured by this experience with the Epic.

My Epic died recently so I switched back to my TP2 until the replacement Epic comes in. I really really miss using this phone. The guts inside are abysmally slow by today's standards, but the outer shell is second-to-none. It's the last serious, professional top-of-the-line phone produced by HTC in their heyday, as far as I'm concerned. The Epic was a cheap wannabe replacement that was a little faster and could run Android, but fell short in other areas. HTC was the market leader in qwerty sliders for many years, but I have precisely zero interest in any phone HTC has produced since the TP2 (except perhaps the mytouch 3g slide which is tmobile only and has an inferior 4-row keyboard). If I wanted a slab-phone, I would certainly choose Samsung over HTC simply because Samsung's screens are so much better.

We may never have any modern phone produced by any company that can match the TP2 shell design. Not because of any technical limitation, but because of mass-market appeal and internal company politics and other BS. HTC is out of the slider business, and no one else seems to want to pick up the slack. It's a shame, but I will most likely end up with a GS3 and a bastardized bluetooth kb attachment in the near future.

[revaaron]

Originally Posted by christophocles

It's a shame, but I will most likely end up with a GS3 and a bastardized bluetooth kb attachment in the near future.

ditto. unfortunately. I'm also thinking about leaving sprint since the last 13 years, they were great until the last 2-3 years where I don't get my calls or SMS a lot of the time. Though I doubt I will since I use up to 7GB per month.

[WanderingMinstrel]

Originally Posted by revaaron

ditto. unfortunately.

+1 on this. Especially the unfortunately part.
Seems like the only current option to staying somewhere near the leading edge for another two year contract period (starting November).

I LOVE my Epic and would keep it longer. My only complaint is the comparative lack of ram and rom memory. Lately I've been getting notifications about deleting programs from my internal storage to permit more memory availability -- and I don't have that many apps installed. Everything else continues to be aces.

[gTen]

Originally Posted by WanderingMinstrel

+1 on this. Especially the unfortunately part.
Seems like the only current option to staying somewhere near the leading edge for another two year contract period (starting November).

I LOVE my Epic and would keep it longer. My only complaint is the comparative lack of ram and rom memory. Lately I've been getting notifications about deleting programs from my internal storage to permit more memory availability -- and I don't have that many apps installed. Everything else continues to be aces.

Why not get a 32gb microsd card for 15$ and then reformat part of it as EXT2/4 then you can install programs to it directly. Though I personally wouldn't mind a phone with 2gb ram, 32gb+ rom and SDXC support....

[WanderingMinstrel]

Originally Posted by gTen

Why not get a 32gb microsd card for 15$ and then reformat part of it as EXT2/4 then you can install programs to it directly.

Thanks, gTen. I didn't know you could do that. What do I need to know to do the reformat? It's new territory for me. I tried teh google but got confused.

[gTen]

Originally Posted by WanderingMinstrel

Thanks, gTen. I didn't know you could do that. What do I need to know to do the reformat? It's new territory for me. I tried teh google but got confused.

a quick google got me to this:

How to Partition an SD Card and Install Darktremor Apps2SD on Android Smart Phone?

Which part do you not understand?

[WanderingMinstrel]

Originally Posted by gTen

a quick google got me to this:

How to Partition an SD Card and Install Darktremor Apps2SD on Android Smart Phone?

Which part do you not understand?

Thanks gTen. I didn't get that page on my search. It's an easy-to-use solution. I'm going to do it. Wish I had a 64G SD card option instead of just a 32G.

[revaaron]

my complaints with the epic are battery and speed. It takes me forever to get the camera app open. Also, no matter what "battery mods" I've done or turned on/off data, I never haver gotten more than a few hours out of the phone. At least not consistently. There might have been a couple days where I went the whole day without charging it, but then the next day under the sames conditions, I get 2hrs.

The other day, I drove the kid to school and me to work with my phone in my pocket. My ipad was streaming a podcast to my stereo, at the screen on for most of the drive with maps up tracking my route, etc...
when I got to work, the epic had gone from 100% to 58%
my iPad had gone from 96% to 90%.

[WanderingMinstrel]

For the best available camera solution, revaaron, try Camera ZOOM FX at the Play store. It's 40% off this week and, for a couple of bucks, it turns the Epic camera into a winner.

I'm fine on battery life. What rom are you using? I've been on Sleeper EL30 since it came out and I can get a full day's use and be at 50-60% remaining when I go to bed. People on The People's Rom (FC09)report similar battery joy. Both these roms have something built in that pushes the Epic into deep sleep mode when you're not actively using it. (Also, if your battery-life issue is recent, Sprint's network reconstruction has been making data connectivity wiggy area by area and causing battery drain...)