Samsung Galaxy Xcover 4S - Moving the clock - and other Android 8 to 9 upgrade queries

Forums › Android › Samsung Galaxy Xcover 4S - Moving the clock - and other Android 8 to 9 upgrade queries

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quickymart

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#2468563 23-Apr-2020 12:41

Thanks Nik, very helpful. Looks like I may just have to live with some shortfalls on this handset - also since found out there's no Always On Display either, which is more of a pain as it was handy seeing all the notifications on that particular screen.

My old one was a Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 edition, last running Android 8, but I guess features like the Always On Screen might be more handset dependent than on something else?

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NikT

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#2469043 24-Apr-2020 10:17

quickymart:

Thanks Nik, very helpful. Looks like I may just have to live with some shortfalls on this handset - also since found out there's no Always On Display either, which is more of a pain as it was handy seeing all the notifications on that particular screen.

My old one was a Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 edition, last running Android 8, but I guess features like the Always On Screen might be more handset dependent than on something else?

The presence of an Always-On Display feature is almost always down to the screen tech used.

Your A3 had an OLED screen - individual pixels can be powered on and off, making blacks super black and contrast theoretically infinite - and allowing for low power consumption when only a few pixels are powered on, as with AOD.

Your Xcover 4s has an LCD display, which uses backlighting through a thin colour layer, and can't power individual pixels on or off, it's all or nothing. LCD devices do not usually have always-on displays as the entire display has to be on and that murders the battery.

Not all OLED devices have AOD, and there's the odd exceptional LCD device which does (like the LG G7), but in contemporary Samsung-land, OLED = AOD, LCD = no AOD.

I'm surprised you picked the Xcover. It's a nice rugged fleet phone and super popular for that purpose, but something like the Galaxy A30 would have been much more comparable to the A3 2017.

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quickymart

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#2470344 24-Apr-2020 14:29

Thanks Nik, another helpful post. To be honest, I liked the smaller size of the A3 (4.7") and the XCover was only 5", so not much difference. Not really interested in a larger screen for what I do, I prefer the smaller size ones - and there wasn't hardly anything 5" or smaller. I also liked having the home button but it looks like that's being phased out on most new Samsungs eh? Mind you, my Nokia Lumia 930 didn't have one either, and it wasn't the end of the world.

NikT

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#2470423 24-Apr-2020 16:51

quickymart:

Thanks Nik, another helpful post. To be honest, I liked the smaller size of the A3 (4.7") and the XCover was only 5", so not much difference. Not really interested in a larger screen for what I do, I prefer the smaller size ones - and there wasn't hardly anything 5" or smaller. I also liked having the home button but it looks like that's being phased out on most new Samsungs eh? Mind you, my Nokia Lumia 930 didn't have one either, and it wasn't the end of the world.

Fair play, it's hard to pick from newer models when so many legacy features have been stripped. Removable batteries, headphone jacks, notification LEDs, physical buttons, SD card slots, FM Radio, and many more are now gone from, of all things, the most expensive handsets available. I quite like Samsung's upcoming Xcover Pro, it retains the majority of the above while staying modern where it matters.

Samsung went incrementally with most of the above feature changes, including for example a virtual home button on the S8 series that was pressure sensitive and could still wake the device from a screen-off state.

The trick with the newer screen sizes being that they've increased the aspect ratios significantly, from 16:9 to 19:9 or 19.5:9, making a 6.4" screen the new normal, but also meaning that they're primarily taller rather than wider - and with the move to larger screen:body ratios, bigger screens can be had in smaller overall packages. Taller screens are less of an issue than wider ones thanks to significant software changes (e.g. that big app name business) which have been made to allow easy access to key functions without stretching your hand to the very top.

With that in mind, I suspect the 5.8" 19:9 S10e would've been the winner had it not also been significantly more expensive than the likes of the Xcover 4s.

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quickymart

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#2470580 24-Apr-2020 21:54

Probably still a bit too big for my liking, but yes I see what you're saying. I guess most new Samsungs being manufactured now simply won't come with a home button - I imagine it's far cheaper to manufacture them without one, than to make a new phone with one.

Pity as I really like my A3 - just 16GB of space these days simply isn't enough.

quickymart

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#2470636 25-Apr-2020 07:28

Too late to edit, but I guess my ideal checklist for a phone would be:

- 5 inch screen (or smaller)

- home button (this one is somewhat negotiable)

- FM radio + 3.5mm headphone jackpoint

- 32GB of space or more (and room for an SD card)

- decent front and back camera (a la the Windows Phone ones - those things took awesome pics!)

- Android OS 8 or later with Always on Display

I had most of this with my A3 2017, my first Android phone, but given I got that 3 years ago and lots has changed in that time I'm probably pushing it a bit with that wish list though eh? :(

MurrayM

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#2472620 28-Apr-2020 10:21

Dingbatt:

MurrayM:

I too have recently switched to an Android 9 phone, an Oppo A4 2020.

On my old phone I used to be able to double-tap the Recents/Overview button in order to switch to the last used app, but this doesn't seem to work in Android 9. Any work-arounds?

A different launcher may give you this. I use Apex, which has lots of options. It is a paid app though, to get all features.

I've discovered that I can actually switch to the previously opened app, but it's not done via a double-tap. It's more of a tap the Recents/Overview button, pause, and then tap the button again. I wasn't pausing because it wasn't necessary previously but now seems to be (at least on my Oppo A4 2020)?

quickymart

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#2475720 3-May-2020 10:59

Another quick query (this is either a yes or no one) - is there any way to transfer the learned words in Gboard from my old phone to my new one, or does it have to learn everything all over again?

Gboard looks different (appearance wise) on my new phone as opposed to my old one, but that could be due to the slightly larger screen.

quickymart

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#2485063 16-May-2020 22:51

Another quick query, is there any way possible to transfer the stock ringtones from the A3 to the XCover?

quickymart

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#2485233 17-May-2020 15:23

Workaround found, I have my two main tones back. One more thing to tick off the list :D

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