Are there any android phones with a MP3 experience that can match Apple?

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Cali3350

Supreme [H]ardness
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I really want to give one of the LTE verizon phones a try (id love to have LTE) but I am scared because when I had my samsung galaxy S I know that the music listening experience was vastly inferior to what I get on my iPhone.

I could not control music via my headset (I couldnt even control volume let alone moving between songs) and I could say "Play songs by Dave Matthews" (as an example) and have it auto play songs like that. I have to assume there is someway to make this work on Android?
 
I thought the android phones where vastly superior due to the advanced hardware they have...at least according to most posts in this forum lol

On a serious note..htc has beats by dr dre now...maybe they built a custom player app for their new phones? Other then that I hear people liking winamp.
 
I think winamp is a pretty basic player and doesn't have lots of added bloat, which is why it's popular.

Personally I use MixZing. Great player, and has an EQ. No voice rec though.
 
Your Galaxy S (original) audio experience is worse than on an iPhone??? Ok, I'm not going into technical stuff just yet, but I didn't think it was possible because the Galaxy S is supposedly one of the best cellphone music players ever made... so I'm going to ask you a few questions first.

Question 1. Were they using the same audio files?

Question 2. Were you using the same earphones or speakers?

Question 3. Which music player were you using on it and what kind of EQ adjustments had you made on it.

Question 4. Did you root your phone/rom your phone/install custom drivers?
 
I don't think he was complaining about audio quality, I think he was complaining about the music player UI. The lack of control and voice recognition specifically. I'd actually like to know what music player people use on their android as well.
 
PowerAMP or Winamp should fix all his troubles.

EDIT: D'oh I was beaten! :(
 
Those include spoken commands? Spoken commands aren't a deal breaker, just really nice.

The iPod functionality of my iPhone is seriously the main reason I keep it around, and the worst developed part of Android.
 
CHANG3D said:
Your Galaxy S (original) audio experience is worse than on an iPhone??? Ok, I'm not going into technical stuff just yet, but I didn't think it was possible because the Galaxy S is supposedly one of the best cellphone music players ever made... so I'm going to ask you a few questions first.

Question 1. Were they using the same audio files?

Question 2. Were you using the same earphones or speakers?

Question 3. Which music player were you using on it and what kind of EQ adjustments had you made on it.

Question 4. Did you root your phone/rom your phone/install custom drivers?
Click to expand...

Has nothing to do with quality. Both sound fine. Has everything to do with ease of use.
 
So i can have my phone locked, in my pocket, and pause/start forward / back my music with the click on my headset?
 
I almost flipped out until I realized he was talking about the UI. Have Nexus S here and the SQ is mindblowingly good for a portable device, if you buy a good pair of IEMs.

I use PowerAMP, and I love how the UI looks. The default Music player with the new UI updates also looks good but it's more superficial and annoying. I'm the type that likes to enqueue song by song from folder view. Sorting by album or artist doesn't really work as half the stuff I have doesn't include proper metadata or is a single.
 
Totenblume said:
I almost flipped out until I realized he was talking about the UI. Have Nexus S here and the SQ is mindblowingly good for a portable device, if you buy a good pair of IEMs.

I use PowerAMP, and I love how the UI looks. The default Music player with the new UI updates also looks good but it's more superficial and annoying. I'm the type that likes to enqueue song by song from folder view. Sorting by album or artist doesn't really work as half the stuff I have doesn't include proper metadata or is a single.
Click to expand...

Its not even UI :)

Its accessing and manipulating your player from a headphone device.
 
I think headset button controller was the app i used, there probably are multiple methods of achieving what you want.
 
My stock Xperia Arc's music player is top notch, no iTunes. I don't understand what you mean.

The 2.3.4 update with XLOUD for the player is awesome too.

Full album art, fluid menus, easy copypasta.... I can't ask for more. #notconvincedofhiddenpower
 
eizen said:
On a serious note..htc has beats by dr dre now...maybe they built a custom player app for their new phones? Other then that I hear people liking winamp.
Click to expand...

Yeah HTC has some type of custom music player on the 'beats' phones, interested to see how this turns out.
 
My relatively generic bluetooth headphones control the music just fine. My friend owns a Nokia bluetooth headphone that controls music as well.

Are you simply using some weird headset that isn't standard bluetooth? Well, to be less tongue-in-cheek, check your bluetooth settings and make sure your device is actually connected properly.
 
ChronoReverse said:
My relatively generic bluetooth headphones control the music just fine. My friend owns a Nokia bluetooth headphone that controls music as well.

Are you simply using some weird headset that isn't standard bluetooth? Well, to be less tongue-in-cheek, check your bluetooth settings and make sure your device is actually connected properly.
Click to expand...

Does it work when the phone's locked? This its the main point that everyone is overlooking.
 
Cali3350 said:
Yes, this is the main thing I am looking for.
Click to expand...

No offense by why not do a little bit of leg work yourself instead of making us do all the work for you?

You've already been told Winamp and PoweAMP will do what you want, yet it's quite apparent you didn't even bother to look at the market to look them up.

Right from the from of the damned Market page for Winamp:

Core Features:
* Persistent player controls
* Album art gesturing for track change
* Integrated Android Search & “Listen to” voice action
* Lock-screen player

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.nullsoft.winamp

Hell, it even says the same thing in the Android Market app right on your phone. :rolleyes:
 
Ryokurin said:
Does it work when the phone's locked? This its the main point that everyone is overlooking.
Click to expand...

Yes it does. Why would it not?

I would just turn on my bluetooth headphones, it'd connect to the phone with two beeps. Then I press play on my headphones and away I go.

By default it controls the Android music player but I've told Playerpro to override the headset controls and thus it controls Playerpro instead.


I also know that it works with Winamp, Ubermusic and 3 player.
 
Vermillion said:
No offense by why not do a little bit of leg work yourself instead of making us do all the work for you?

You've already been told Winamp and PoweAMP will do what you want, yet it's quite apparent you didn't even bother to look at the market to look them up.

Right from the from of the damned Market page for Winamp:

Core Features:
* Persistent player controls
* Album art gesturing for track change
* Integrated Android Search & “Listen to” voice action
* Lock-screen player

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.nullsoft.winamp

Hell, it even says the same thing in the Android Market app right on your phone. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Well, a few reasons, not the least of which is I don't have a android phone to actually test any of this with.

There's also the fact I was looking for user experience, not just blackboard features.
 
Stating that you're looking for "a user experience" doesn't help anyone figure out what the hell you want, especially since everything you've complained about works just fine on Android.
 
Ok thanks guys, ill take your word that it works fine. My experience with my Galaxy S must have just been a bad one.

Im looking at the HTC Rezound or the Nexus Prime, I really want LTE on my phone in NYC.
 
Well, perhaps it's an incompatibility with your BT headset as I suggested earlier? I know the Nokia ones work fine and the generic Rocketfish ones work too but perhaps not all do.
 
Looks like the "just works" platform does indeed what it's suppose to do. It just works.
 
mobusta1 said:
Looks like the "just works" platform does indeed what it's suppose to do. It just works.
Click to expand...
To be fair the iPhone does have 10 years of development behind it for it's music capabilities. That said, Google has really dropped the ball as far as making Android a music player by leaving it mostly up to 3rd party developers.
 
siliconnerd said:
To be fair the iPhone does have 10 years of development behind it for it's music capabilities. That said, Google has really dropped the ball as far as making Android a music player by leaving it mostly up to 3rd party developers.
Click to expand...

Google hasn't dropped the ball on anything. They build the OS. It has a basic Music app which works just fine. If you want niceties you go download a 3rd party program because that's the point of Android: user choice.

As for "just works" it only works with iTunes and iTunes hardly "just works". I'll take Winamp with a simple drag and drop thanks!
 
Itunes also has drag and drop. Open the program, drag your music from any other window over the phone and it uploads it. Drag and drop is not as big of a issue as people (likely people who've never used it with a phone or ipod) like to make it.
 
Ryokurin said:
Itunes also has drag and drop. Open the program, drag your music from any other window over the phone and it uploads it. Drag and drop is not as big of a issue as people (likely people who've never used it with a phone or ipod) like to make it.
Click to expand...

My issue is the fact that iTunes is a slow piece of shit that crashes and I shouldn't need to use to do something simple like drag and drop. ;)

When I kicked my iPhone 3G out the door, in favor of a Droid, iTunes landed right next to it in the gutter.
 
Ryokurin said:
Itunes also has drag and drop. Open the program, drag your music from any other window over the phone and it uploads it. Drag and drop is not as big of a issue as people (likely people who've never used it with a phone or ipod) like to make it.
Click to expand...
The point of drag and drop is to be able to do it on any computer regardless of whether or not iTunes is installed.
 
But the basic Android Music App DOES "just work"

By default it handles the bluetooth headset controls without a hitch and 3rd party apps simply override it if they want to use the bluetooth headset controls instead (they do it automatically).


I mean, the iPhone didn't even fully support AVRCP until later revisions of iOS (the 3gs was only able to handle pause and play commands until iOS 4.1 where it finally got the ability to skip tracks) whereas Androids of the same timeframe worked properly (Android 1.5 Cupcake had support a fully year before iOS 4.1 came out).
 
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Vermillion said:
My issue is the fact that iTunes is a slow piece of shit that crashes and I shouldn't need to use to do something simple like drag and drop. ;)

When I kicked my iPhone 3G out the door, in favor of a Droid, iTunes landed right next to it in the gutter.
Click to expand...

That's what happened to my iphone 3g and itunes :D

HD2 with Mango and Gingerbread FTW
 
Let me help you guys out with this a bit...all from my experience.

The best phone that I used in terms of sound quality was the Samsung Galaxy S (Captivate on AT&T). The reason for this is because the audio chip that it was using was the Wolfson chipset, when using Voodoo sound to unlock its potential, was pure bliss.

There are a few Android phones that are out there that are still using the same or better DAC/codec, but a lot of Android devices are just plain bad, and that includes the new HTC "Beats" initiative (which, in reviews, were just proven to be flimsy EQs applied to the output), which could be better attained by using your own EQ curve in something like Winamp or Poweramp.

My HTC phone (Inspire 4G) does not have very good audio. I mean, it works, granted, it's hacked up with CM7, it's usable on the lock screen, but it has annoying skips and stutters that I've come to find are insurmountable, leading me to believe that it's an inferior audio DAC/codec that's being used. I've also heard rumblings and rumors that Android has an inferior audio/bluetooth stack which doesn't help the picture at all.

These little issues here and there with fragmentation only help Apple to seem better in general when there are in fact good Android options to choose from; you just need to do your research, and that's the problem. You have to get so intrinsic in your research that you wonder why you have to go through all the trouble.

I'd make sure I get a phone that has a good audio DAC/codec and go from there.
 
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My Galaxy S2 LTE has static noise when headphones are plugged in. My iPhone does not have this problem. I've tried using 3 headphones already.
 
ChronoReverse said:
But the basic Android Music App DOES "just work"

By default it handles the bluetooth headset controls without a hitch and 3rd party apps simply override it if they want to use the bluetooth headset controls instead (they do it automatically).


I mean, the iPhone didn't even fully support AVRCP until later revisions of iOS (the 3gs was only able to handle pause and play commands until iOS 4.1 where it finally got the ability to skip tracks) whereas Androids of the same timeframe worked properly (Android 1.5 Cupcake had support a fully year before iOS 4.1 came out).
Click to expand...
I came into this thread and was thinking all of ^ this as I went through it.
I've never had a problem with any Android phone or OS when it came to using bluetooth headphones (plantronics and motorola) as well as my old window mobile phones. These go back to the days before iphones had a2dp support (which was one of the things i raged over when it was introduced. the thing was marketed as an "ipod phone" but didn't have a basic music function available to all of the windows phones of the time)
 
Not that anyone likely cares but here is my 2 cents. The best audio experience on a phone is Windows Phone. Nothing I've ever used or has heard has even remotely touched the quality of Zune.

I have an android phone, but carry a zune HD with me too because I find it so superior. To avoid confusion, yes I've used a windows phone on which I'm basing my opinion.
 
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