Database Users

General thoughts so far....

For those of you that now have this phone, what are your thoughts? I'm liking this phone more and more but do I need it, well, not really. I'm perfectly happy with my Nexus 4 running PA but there's something about this that has me wanting it. I think part of it is the fact that it's kind of the underdog. It will be exciting to see what the dev's come up with, ROM wise. Anyway, my brain is just spinning as usual, haha.

davela72 said:
For those of you that now have this phone, what are your thoughts? I'm liking this phone more and more but do I need it, well, not really. I'm perfectly happy with my Nexus 4 running PA but there's something about this that has me wanting it. I think part of it is the fact that it's kind of the underdog. It will be exciting to see what the dev's come up with, ROM wise. Anyway, my brain is just spinning as usual, haha.
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I'm coming from a sony X10 but the oppo find 5 is working good, I had no dead pixels everything worked out of the box.
I have some problems with contact syncing and gmail updates. Photographs are beautiful, but HDR is not really good on dark spots. (lots of noise because of ISO value's)
I did not wanted the nexus 4 because of the glass back. But I think I would also be happy with the nexus 4. But it is overpriced in the Netherlands, my oppo is cheaper then the nexus 4.
It is super fast compared to my X10. No idea how fast the nexus 4 is.
I think you can better donate some money to charity instead of buying yet another high-end phone

nice
previous phone: HTC Sensation
+ Display: WOW! youtube trailer in HD and people start peeping their eyes out!
+ Sound: I never heard a phone playing it sounds like this
+ Speed: I changed the default (ugly) launcher to APEX, this give's the phone a better feel
+ Camera: Although my previous phone was already 2 year old hence i cannot compare it to recent in-phone-camera's it looks great
+ Desgin: It is sharp but not too sharp edged, it's light and thin. the phone is big in size but because its slim dimensions you will not notice it in your jeans (unless you wear skinny jeans i guess, but who does that )
- Temperature when under load, i feel the device is getting pretty warm, your hands start being sweatty.
- Stock UI

Display
Simply Amazing. Bright & Crisp.
However, the screen responsiveness to your touch isn't very good. I find myself having to tap many things twice or three times to get it registered.​Battery
Terrible. It seems to be draining even while sleeping.
My usual morning routine, I unplugged the phone from the charger. It's charged to 100% over night. I do a few light tasks like replying to text messages, flipping through Flipboard, see one 30 sec YouTube video, brightness setting at 50%.
After 20 minutes of usage, my battery gotten down from 100% to 78%.​Speaker
Nice and loud. Best, I have ever heard. But, when you lay it on its back, the speaker will be completely muffled.​Camera
Sucks. 13MP only in spirit. Colors are over saturated. And, the balance isn't there. Lots of graininess in images, even in ample light. Also, don't use the LED flash. Your pictures will be almost all blown white. Absolutely no setting like macro, scene mode, white balance, panaroma, etc.. Just point and shoot and hope for the best...and often times, it isn't.
My 8MP Nexus and 5MP iPad Mini can take picture and video much better.​Stock Launcher
The widgets are fugly. Period.​Build Quality
Strong like my unibody Macbook Pro. However, the power and volume rockers shifts around. The micro USB port is weak. I feel like I'm gonna break that port anytime soon.​Software
Random reboots at least twice or three times a day. No idea why. I feel like I'm using Windows 95 all over again. Oh, and Gmail doesn't open up. Yeah, seriously, Gmail DOES NOT work on this phone. I have to use the other mail app instead. Latest firmware & Gmail update.
Software is actually 4.1, not 4.2. Coming from Nexus 4, that was a let down. I miss the swype style keyboard on 4.2.​ROM
Currently, as of late March, no ROMs​Side Note
USB wall charger & headphones look EXACTLY like the ones for iPhones. Apple will be calling them soon, if not already.​
Conclusion
Beauty & the Beast.......okay, maybe just the Beauty and not much else.​

Interesting perspective, thanks for sharing. Hopefully a lot of these things can be fixed with future updates. What's the deal with the Gmail not working and is this something that OPPO is aware of?

I really am happy with the phone. Looks great and stands out in the crowd. Screen is fabulous. It's a new kid on the block, so there are a few things that are not quite there yet. But it seems Oppo are really working hard to make a proper go at this. So far weekly updates and regular fixes. I attached a simple benchmark to give you an idea of the spec. I'm sure there are better performers out there, but it seems to hold it's own!

It seems that my take is a lot different than other peoples on the board, or maybe I got really lucky and got the perfect unit, My Droid DNA is in my drawer and my Oppo Find 5 is sitting on my coffee table right now. All I have to say is wow I am really quite surprised with the device, and I have a Droid DNA now, and my previous device was HTC One X International Version. So I have saw some very nice displays lately, and the Oppo Find 5 is right up there with the best of them, it handles its own. The only fault was that I got my Oppo Find 5 with 1 stuck pixel, you don't even notice it only if you look for it when it’s on the black part while its booting up, once the screen comes on you can’t even see it.
+ Display is really NICE! 1 pixel stuck, on par with Droid DNA SLCD3 and just as bright so you don't have to turn it up that far and waste battery.
+ Build Quality I can’t say enough about this, this thing feels like I could Drop it off the roof and it would last.
+ The All black front display looks so good just as nice or better than the One X, and it has that nice curve in the glass that makes it nice to use.
+ I haven't tried the stock ear buds, but with my Sony ear buds, this thing sounds great, no distortion at all, with bass high, all amps sound good.
+ The stock speaker is also a pleasant surprise, it sounds really good at high volume levels also, when set right, no distortion and it gets loud
+ I stuck with the default launcher to give it a try and it is pretty smooth, has a really nice settings layout. I may switch, it reminds me of MIUI
+ The camera is just as good as my HTC DNA, I don't remember which review said it was about like about like an 8MP LG, It shots fine pictures.
+ The white matte finish does not leave any fingerprints and the screen must have that stuff to keep fingerprints off it also, it barley gets fingerprints
+ I have ran plenty of benchmarks and my unit did not get hot at all as someone said, maybe I wasn't holding it where it was getting hot at on their device?
+ The complete design is what really shines on this phone on the outside, it looks so sleek, and I have already caught people glancing and looking at it, and I have only owned it for one day, if that says anything at all?
+ or - Don't know enough about battery life yet but so far mine seems to be holding up better today, now that it is on its second charge, With a full HD Display you have got to know how to manage your battery, turn things off that you are not using at the time, it worked on my One X and that thing was a nightmare. On my One X I also disabled all my apps that I didn't ever use. At least until we get Roms that will take out all the bloat junk. Today my battery is doing really well almost 2 hours screen time and 76% left.
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-- I would have to say that the launcher would have been better stock, but I like trying new things out. I really hope Paranoid Android comes to this phone that will be my rom of choice. I already know CM and MIUI are coming soon.
-- The Ugly widgets, Oppo have so many better widgets on their other phones (Oppo Finder, Oppo Way, Oppo 3?) all those widgets look better IMO. I wish I could replace them somehow by switching APKs; maybe someone knows how and could let me know?
-- Contrast I like the over saturated look we have a developer that is working on a kernel or app to set your display just how you like it, at least I think so anyway?- hopefully we can get this fixed soon I know it’s being worked on by paperweistage and his kernel hopefully he gets it figures out, but if you want to help he is looking for some help in his kernel thread, He is looking for JDI Display white-sheets. So help out if you can
And support our developer, that’s how we eventually get more custom Kernel Roms and Apps. Donate to them a couple dollars for a cold one or a coffee.
-- or + It is a little bit on the heavy side but look how it’s made! Some could call this a negative but I left it neutral because it is well balanced and with a full metal frame inside around it, I don't really mind it weighing 20 extra grams, at least hopefully my phone won’t shatter into a thousand pieces if it falls on the ground.
Add more later after I use it awhile longer.
Stock Find 5 Score
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BELOW MY DROID DNA with a custom kernel, once we get a custom kernel for the Find 5, I think it will do better than the DNA I couldn't get the scores I'm getting with the Find 5 with my DNA when it was stock maybe 18900 or 19500.
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drvsbsm, awesome review! I was checking the OPPO forums earlier and was really getting mixed thoughts on the phone. I know this phone is new and things are just getting started and I think that is some of what's driving me to it. I remember when the Nokia N9 came out with it's Hartmann/Meego OS, I fell in love with that thing and it was pretty much a dead platform when released. It looks like OPPO is keeping up with bug fixes and putting out updates so that's a good sign. Most of all though, I think the thing is SEXY, a beautiful device.
I'm guessing the vendor on Amazon is the place to get it from, the one located in HK?
Thanks again guys!

Very , very good rewiew !
knite75 said:
Display
Simply Amazing​Battery
Terrible. It seems to be draining even while sleeping​Speaker
Nice and loud.​Camera
Sucks. My 8MP Nexus and 5MP iPad Mini can take picture and video much better. Absolutely no setting like scene mode, white balance, panaroma, etc in stock camera app​Stock Launcher
The widgets are fugly. Period.​Build Quality
Strong like my unibody Macbook Pro. However, the power and volume rockers shifts around. The micro USB port is weak. I feel like I'm gonna break that port anytime soon.​Software
Random reboots at least twice or three times a day. No idea why. I feel like I'm using Windows 95 all over again. Oh, and Gmail doesn't open up. Yeah, seriously, Gmail DOES NOT work on this phone. I have to use the other mail app instead.​ROM
Currently, as of late March, no ROMs​Side Note
USB wall charger & headphones look EXACTLY like the ones for iPhones. Apple will be calling them soon, if not already.​
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+1...... The good think is that the almost everything can be repaired (soft related )

Video camera isn't that very good.
Video is okay if the subject stands still. However, when subject runs or any fast moments, then video gets blurry or ghosting.
For example, here's a video of my daughter at her Taekwondo practice. Notice how she gets blurry when she starts running?
http://youtu.be/ln_2YvN6f78

knite75 said:
Video camera isn't that very good.
Video is okay if the subject stands still. However, when subject runs or any fast moments, then video gets blurry or ghosting.
For example, here's a video of my daughter at her Taekwondo practice. Notice how she gets blurry when she starts running?
http://youtu.be/ln_2YvN6f78
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Hopefully this will be addressed as OPPO is releasing an update within a few days for camera related issues.

I have a question about the screen durability. I read somewhere, maybe GSMArena, that the screen rippled very easily and was a bit flexible. That sounds very concerning. I've also heard a few things about poor touchscreen response. This may also be hardware only problem that can't be fixed with any updates.
A lot of these smaller phone makers can just buy off the shelf parts (figuratively) and bulid their own phone. They don't need to develop their own hardware components, just how everything fits together and the overall design. The camera is an Exmor RS from Sony, and the screen is probably a 1080p panel from Sharp. Of course the processor is Qualcomm.
The biggest problem these small relatively no name companies face is the software. It's the brains that makes the smartphone smart, and having a small and inexperienced team, especially while trying to make your own skin, can lead to many shortcomings, from bugs to performance issues to compatibility to poor hardware utilization and battery life. A lot of this stuff even the big boys have trouble with and they have far bigger teams with far more experience. Oppo should go the route that BLU is taking in the future. BLU has a really horrible skin, allegedly, and unstable and buggy phones, but they are supposedly putting stock Android on their new Life series line of phones.

From what I've gathered, the screen is made by JDI?

katamari201 said:
I have a question about the screen durability. I read somewhere, maybe GSMArena, that the screen rippled very easily and was a bit flexible. That sounds very concerning. I've also heard a few things about poor touchscreen response. This may also be hardware only problem that can't be fixed with any updates.
A lot of these smaller phone makers can just buy off the shelf parts (figuratively) and bulid their own phone. They don't need to develop their own hardware components, just how everything fits together and the overall design. The camera is an Exmor RS from Sony, and the screen is probably a 1080p panel from Sharp. Of course the processor is Qualcomm.
The biggest problem these small relatively no name companies face is the software. It's the brains that makes the smartphone smart, and having a small and inexperienced team, especially while trying to make your own skin, can lead to many shortcomings, from bugs to performance issues to compatibility to poor hardware utilization and battery life. A lot of this stuff even the big boys have trouble with and they have far bigger teams with far more experience. Oppo should go the route that BLU is taking in the future. BLU has a really horrible skin, allegedly, and unstable and buggy phones, but they are supposedly putting stock Android on their new Life series line of phones.
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The screen is from JDI. seems pretty sturdy to me. They seem to be keeping on top of things. But they have a very good reputation in the high end Av community. It's also not their 1st phone. Just their first soiree in the international market.

I have had my Find 5 for more than a week now sans screen protector. Unfortunately, there are lots of micro scratches already. And, I'm very conscious about where I put and use my phone.
Same practice, my Nexus 4 fair much better even after six months of usage.
All in all, have screen protector or don't have too long of finger nails.
katamari201 said:
I have a question about the screen durability. I read somewhere, maybe GSMArena, that the screen rippled very easily and was a bit flexible. That sounds very concerning. I've also heard a few things about poor touchscreen response. This may also be hardware only problem that can't be fixed with any updates.
A lot of these smaller phone makers can just buy off the shelf parts (figuratively) and bulid their own phone. They don't need to develop their own hardware components, just how everything fits together and the overall design. The camera is an Exmor RS from Sony, and the screen is probably a 1080p panel from Sharp. Of course the processor is Qualcomm.
The biggest problem these small relatively no name companies face is the software. It's the brains that makes the smartphone smart, and having a small and inexperienced team, especially while trying to make your own skin, can lead to many shortcomings, from bugs to performance issues to compatibility to poor hardware utilization and battery life. A lot of this stuff even the big boys have trouble with and they have far bigger teams with far more experience. Oppo should go the route that BLU is taking in the future. BLU has a really horrible skin, allegedly, and unstable and buggy phones, but they are supposedly putting stock Android on their new Life series line of phones.
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Click to collapse

New firmware 328,it has camera fixes...

No marked improvement or fixes to camera with latest firmware.
Just new feature: panorama.
Oppo should focus on fixing all the basic camera problems, rather than, adding gimmick useless feature.

knite75 said:
No marked improvement or fixes to camera with latest firmware.
Just new feature: panorama.
Oppo should focus on fixing all the basic camera problems, rather than, adding gimmick useless feature.
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Wow knite please get back to your iphone.
They tweaked a bit around with the iso settings. But not something really spectaculair.
At least they did something. Most companies will be like :"DEAL WITH IT!"

Haas8 said:
Wow knite please get back to your iphone.
They tweaked a bit around with the iso settings. But not something really spectaculair.
At least they did something. Most companies will be like :"DEAL WITH IT!"
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Click to collapse
Most company would release software when it's ready and in decent condition for general public consumption... Not beta....or alpha in this case.
Check the camera... Aside from poor image quality.... Do see any basic features like:
Macro
White Balance
Scene Mode
As a matter of fact, on Oppo forums, lots of threads and discussion on how poor the pictures and video are turning out... Oppo just ignore them...basically, saying "DEAL WITH IT!"
Instead, they spent their finite limited development resources in adding useless Panorama feature. When is the last time you took a panorama picture, aside from just wanting to see how it works?

I took a panorama earlier at dinner actually. I did the update out of the box and didn't know it added that so that's cool lol.
Sent from my X909 using xda premium

My Xperia Z & Samsung S4

I'm a satisfied owner of the Xperia Z for the last 2 months. Its an excellent device! IMO its the best Android smartphone at the moment that has managed to incorporate a good balance between design, performance and software in an excellent package. I won't go into the details about the Z as I'm sure owners of the device already know it well.
Yesterday I was lucky enough to get my hands on the new Samsung S4 (LTE version). My wife was due for a free upgrade but she didn't want it (as she loves her Note 2 too much!) so I jumped at the chance! After getting home last night I put the S4 on charge and managed to get half of my setup done. Anyway, I'm going to be comparing real life use on both devices for around 2 weeks before deciding which device works better for me and that would be the one I will keep (right now my choice is still the Z :victory.
Here are my initial thoughts after a little feel and play with the S4:
Design & Feel:
Essentially, this is an S3 upgrade, period! I know hardcore fans of Samsung will disagree. Sorry, but its much like the iPhone 4 to iPhone 5 story, its NOT a revolution but an evolution. Samsung touts a premium finish, again sorry but these words do not apply to the S4. Its still plastic but this time round the finish on the plastic, like a high gloss piano finish, is much better than all of the other Samsung devices I've seen. The metallic like rim is plastic with a brushed metal finish. One would not mistake it for metal, it definitely looks plastic. On the 4 corners of the metallic rim are lines which makes it look as if it was 4 pieces joined together but actually I am assuming its due to injection moulding process used to make the part. This is present on the Z also but Sony has done a much better job as its much cleaner and barely noticeable. The addition of the checkered pattern does gives the appearance quite a nice look, though not exactly a premium one. The front of the S4 looks OK, its basically a Samsung look, nothing special but acceptable for me with the exception of the ugly earpiece grill which has never appealed to me. The back is where I have always felt Samsung has failed and need to improve in the design department. The camera design is big, ugly and always protrude, meaning it will be more susceptible to damage and scratches. A slightly recessed and smaller camera design would have made it safer for the camera and improved the looks. A good looking case would be a solution but I prefer to use my devices butt naked.
In the hand, the S4 feels slippery, very slippery, like a fish that will jump out of your hand if you don't hold it tight enough. Definitely needs a case or something on the back to reduce the risk of dropping it. It does however, have quite a nice form factor and feels more comfortable to hold than the Z, I think the curves do a bit of justice here. The placement of the volume and power buttons on the S4 needs improvement, having them on opposite sides just allows for frequent accidental pressing of the unintended button, the guy that designed/approved it should be shot! The volume and power button placement on the Z is just perfect.
Theres nothing really premium about the design and feel of the S4 when compared to the Z. In the hand, the Z gives the feeling of a high quality and solidly built product. The S4 despite the improved plastic finishes, feels a little more comfortable to hold in the hand but does not justify a price tag of $800 in terms of design and finish. Theres no squeaking from the plastic at the moment but hey, I've had it less than a day and time will tell.
Screen
Right now I can't provide my detailed thoughts on the screen as I have not had enough screen time yet. At first sight the screen looks sharp but colours are quite over saturated and less natural compared to my Z. One aspect I can confirm is that the viewing angles of the S4's screen is pretty good.
Update May 2:
Both screens are of different technologies and has its pros and cons. After comparing them both through typical web browsing, reading text, emails, use of same apps and viewing photos:
1. I like the natural colours of the Z more. The S4, no matter what display mode you set it in, the colours are still a little over saturated. The reflections are less on the Z and brightness is higher, thus making it more comfortable to use outdoor. That said, the screen on the S4 is still gorgeous, if not comparing them side by side, you'll get comfortable and used to the colours quite quickly.
2. Both screens display superb sharpness and clarity. You'll have to look hard to notice the difference and I find that the Z has the edge when it comes to sharpness and clarity. Thats obvious given the LCD technology advantage over AMOLED in this respect. However, the screen on the S4 is certainly no loser.
3. I mentioned viewing angles earlier and theres nothing to debate about this one. The S4 is a clear winner. I know that there are Z owners who say things like "who uses their phone and look at the screen from an angle, stupid!" or "I always look at the screen face on, so it doesn't matter anyway". I raise a practical example: in the office my phone is on my desk most of the time, when I check messages I do it with the phone on the desk and a good viewing angle is welcomed here. The fact is, the Z is Sony's flagship: a premium product with a premium price, which IMO should have came with better viewing angles. However, IMO we got a slightly sub-par display.
In terms of personal preference, I'd choose the display on the Z because I prefer the more natural colours. If I had to make an objective judgment, I'd have to give the S4 display the heads-up. In addition to that, you'll get a little more real screen estate because the S4 doesn't use soft buttons.
Update May 3:
As request by member 'thelittleidiot', I did a movie test on both screens. I downloaded and used the latest Superman trailer 3 (HD mov format) because it had a mixture of dark and bright scenes and close-up on characters so as to be able to compare how skin tones rendered. I used MX Player Pro on both phones to make the test as fair as possible and had both screens at maximum brightness with auto adapt off, Bravia engine was on. Before starting the comparison, I watched the trailer on my Macbook just to familiarise with the colours and details. Here's what I found:
S4 in movie mode: Movie mode is supposed to be closest to natural colours but this was not what I saw. Colours were pale as if a little washed out. Seriously I wouldn't chose this option for watching movies.
S4 in professional photo mode: Colours were better and closer to the Z but still not natural when comparing both side by side. The viewing experience is still better on the Z.
S4 in standard mode: Colours are now looking over saturated. Its still the Z that give a better viewing experience.
I didn't test dynamic mode or adaptive mode because these modes would have been even more saturated. The S4 screen is very contrasty and blacks are very good but this is not necessarily a good thing for movies IMO. In dark scenes I could not see all the details on Russell Crowe's face whereas on the Z it was not a problem. On all of the modes on the S4, the blues had a tint of green, whites often not enough and skin colours were either not accurate or way off.
My opinions above are obviously due to the fact that I prefer more natural looking colours, though this may not apply to everyone. Nevertheless, the S4's screen has started to grow on me. I have an almost identical setup on both phones to help with my comparison: the same wallpaper, widgets, app icons on home screen etc. When I have them both side by side, I can't help but notice that the S4's vibrancy and colours just seems as if they want to jump out at you, like theres so much life in the screen. On the Z, despite that colours are more natural and whites are whiter, it just doesn't give me that feeling. I had Galaxy Note 2 before and didn't feel that way but I suppose its because the S4's is a FHD screen.
Performance and Software
OK, so the S4 is a step ahead of the Z with JB 4.2.2 out of the box. Its heavily Touchwiz with UI improvements. It feels smooth so far with no lags or micro lags whatsoever. I ran Antutu benchmark and it scored over 23K compared to 20K that my Z got.
Update May 2:
I don't run intensive apps or do heavy gaming, so my findings are from general use and also based on software out of the box.
I've never been particularly fond of the Touchwiz interface but don't hate it either. The S4's Touchwiz is the latest and comes with some UI improvements and changes. It works well and feels fluid. Though theres been a couple of times when I exit an app to the home screen and theres been a bit of a micro lag or stutter. Not sure what caused it but overall the S4 is very smooth. Samsung's added a host of features and software to the S4, air view, air gestures, smart gestures, S Health etc. They all work most of the time but will add loading on the power consumption. I prefer a little more interaction so I keep most of these features off. To be honest, most of these are a gimmick thing rather than being a real productive feature. The new settings menu is now categorised into 4 tabs which is a nice idea but could have been better if sliding to switch tabs was possible (like the how its possible switch to tabs by sliding left or right in the Z's phone app). The notification panel of toggles are extremely convenient for turning on or off a list of features/functions and can be pulled down by sliding 2 fingers from the top of the screen. I get the feeling that Samsung is trying hard to add/create value to its flagship model with additions of software and features, which is a good thing, but not all of it will appeal to everyone and a lot of it we probably wouldn't use 90% of the time anyway.
The S4 has newer hardware, hence a higher benchmark score over the Z. In standard daily usage though, theres really no noticeable difference. Both phones are very capable of handling almost any task thrown at it and feels very fluid. BTW both get pretty hot on the backside when the CPU is pushed. Overall, performance wise, both phones will satisfy the majority of users day in day out. In respect of the software side, its more of a subjective thing. I like the Z's clean, crisp and minimalist skin. I love its Walkman app (top sound reproduction and 2nd to none!) and Album app & widgets. I also like and use the small apps feature quite often. With the S4, multi window is great and I like being able to continuously scroll through desktops or the app & widget drawers. Microsoft Exchange Active sync works and integrates better on the S4 than it does on the Z. Its hard to a make a decision on the software comparison. However, the good thing is that Android is highly customisable so we can always tune it to work our way. I'd like to have a mixture of both the Z & S4 if I can!
Update May 3:
A small but important update on the software side. Some apps and games that I have been using on the Z which on the screen was not scaled properly (part of the interface goes outside of the screen are) is perfect on the S4. On top of that, certain widgets that not working/displaying properly on the Z works perfectly on the S4. I have to give Samsung a +1 for that.
Update May 2:
Battery Performance
Now that I've completely setup my S4 and managed to fully discharged the battery once, I will get the first battery performance results tonight. Will update then.
Update May 3:
The battery on my S4 won't be fully conditioned until after a few more full charges and discharges. Anyway attached results of the first battery performance after one discharge and then full charge. Now, I have read that other owners of the Z and S4 get amazing battery performance and on screen time of 5 - 6 hours. Honestly, it sounds a bit abnormal for me. I have never got that kind of battery performance on my Z, around 3 hours of screen time is probably the max I get. Are those who get 4+ hours simply turning off the majority of functions? Reduce screen brightness to 25%? Stop every process they can in the background? If thats the case, then we're really not getting most out of our smartphones during normal daily usage. I understand that its important to get the most of out the battery, especially if you are not near a charge port during the day but for me, its most essential to utilise the device for its abilities. Smartphones are really state of the art things nowadays which are simultaneously multifunctional and should be used that way.
Here are the parameters affecting the battery performance of my S4:
- wifi, gps, all sync features on, exchange active sync set on push so constant connection to the server.
- was on wifi network about 70% of the time, the rest was on LTE for data.
- screen brightness adaptive and set at 0.
- vibration, sound and haptic feedback on.
- led on with light flow.
- samsung's smart features/guestures off with exception of smart stay.
- around 25 mins of phone calls and 10 sms
- lots of whatsapp, medium google+, little wechat voice messaging, medium facebook, light browsing on chrome, some youtube, a few emails, some app updates via playstore, some instagram, some news reading, 30 mins or so of gaming.
I'm pretty happy with the results (I consider my usage pattern being medium to heavy) and as the battery gets more conditioned, coupled with further fine tuning of the S4, I'm confident that the battery performance will further improve. For me, its very clear that the S4 battery performance bypasses that of the Z. I use my Z the same way and don't get that kind of battery performance. Note though, the S4 does have the advantage of a larger 2600mah battery and the power efficient AMOLED, so its not like comparing apples to apples here. I have an external battery for my Z and don't mind carrying it when needed, it may not be so convenient when charging the Z but it does the job. As for the S4, I can see myself getting a day's usage on a single charge and if needed a spare battery can be changed easily, a plus point for the S4.
Update May 3:
Call Quality & Signal
In general, when in an area with good signal the call quality on the Z was good. The audio quality is also good. Where I have experienced problems with the Z are:
- When outside or in relatively noisy places its hard to hear the call from the earpiece on the Z. I have to resort to plugging in my hands free to solve the problem.
- In areas where signal is unstable or patchy whether its 3G or 4G, I sometimes find that the Z have difficulties in locking onto the network. It just jumps back and forth between 3G & 4G. This is not good because the phone constantly drains power by trying to lock itself onto a signal and your data connection is also on and off, again draining battery. One time I was outside in a patchy area and data connection was pretty unstable, it ended up that Kaiten Mail was responsible for 50% of the battery consumption because it was trying to sync my mails but couldn't get connected and just forced the phone to boost the radio and try get data connected.
- On a few occasions, where I have made or received a call, I can hear the opposite party but they cannot hear me. Even after hanging up and then redialing it still happens. I have to restart the phone to solve it.
So far the call quality and signal from the S4 have been good and stable, the audio quality of the call is quite a rich experience. Most important of all, the earpiece volume is loud enough that I don't need the hands free in relatively noisy environments. On top of that, the speaker on the S4 is much louder and clearer which is good for me because sometimes I like to hear voice chat messages via the speaker for convenience. I'll need to have used the phone in similar areas as the Z before concluding its signal and call quality. I expect to round this part up in a week.
Camera
Not had time to play and compare the cameras yet. Something for the weekend I think. Stay tuned!
Update May 5
Build Quality
6 days into using the S4 and build quality issues are beginning to show. The first is the slight squeaking of the back cover in certain places. It’s not really bad but enough to be noticeable. The second is the issue of vibration, which I believe may be related to the camera module, as this also happens with the Note 2. When using the phone on a flat surface you’ll hear vibration sounds when tapping the screen. Also, tapping around the camera area on the back of the phone will also emit vibration sounds. Don’t have these problems with the Xperia Z.
Performance & Software
Here are some new findings:
1.Out of the box you get just over 50% of the available storage for use on the S4 whereas on the Z you get closer to 65% of available storage for use. Samsung’s obviously bloated out its S4 a little too much.
2.After boot up the S4 consumed 854MB of RAM, in comparison the Z used less than 600MB. Open a host of apps and soon the S4 will start to show a bit of lag and stutter. Not something to expect considering the faster CPU and RAM the S4 has over the Z.
3.The more I look at Touchwiz the more I think ugly. The appearance of the phone dialer, contacts, notification and toggles, settings menus and pop up settings/menu all look ugly and outdated. The Z beats the S4’s interface design by miles.
4.Tried all of the gimmicky features of the S4 and only found Air View to be the only feature that I could make use of frequently and it works quite well. Its obviously nice to have the other features of S4 and show people what the phone is capable of but I certainly don’t see myself using it 90% of the time.
Call Quality & Signal
So, I’ve managed to use the S4 for calls in most of the areas I have been using the Z and the call quality is good with no dropped call, network signal holds well, though in patchy areas the phone does switch between 3G and 4G constantly. I don’t see this as an issue with the phone but more a network problem as it happens on the Z also. The S4’s voice calls are loud and clear, the Z does have a bit more depth in the call audio department though. Overall, I think both phones hold up pretty well in this area with the only exception that the earpiece volume on the Z is under average thus making it difficult to hear in noisy environments.
Just a note on the wifi. The S4 holds the wifi better than the Z. Where the Z dropped the connection the S4 stays connected.
Music Audio Quality & Headphone Compatibility
The sound quality produced by the Z’s Walkman app is the best. I have not used another app that can produce audiophiles as clean and as original as the Walkman app. Sony must have also used a very good DAC in addition to excellent software. Even music with Poweramp app sounded better on the Z than it did on the S4. The S4’s music app is no match. My only complaint with the Z is that the volume level is a little low but it’s still sufficient for me. Those who like their music loud will not be happy with the highest volume level on the Z.
Now comes the BIG problem with the S4. There are headphone compatibility issues. There is already a thread in the XDA Samsung S4 forum about this, so those who want to know more should give it a read. Basically, there are serious amounts of crackling and distortion with certain headphones when used on the S4 with the volume 50% or above. I was shocked when I plugged my Sony XBA-2VP into the S4. I thought they had failed on me but it turns out the problem was the S4. They work perfectly well on the Z. Now to me, this is a serious problem and one not to be forgiven for. How Samsung failed on this one I don't know. Surprisingly, a lot of the expensive premium headphones have this problem on the S4 and the cheaper (including stock) ones aren’t affected. To me this issue is really a big minus for the S4 and especially to people who crave for excellent audiophiles. On top of that, I don't think we want to splash out more money just buy a good compatible pair of headphones.
Camera
So, I was supposed to do some comparison on the camera over the weekend but sadly the speaker on my Z had some problems and had to go to Sony service center. I did manage to take a couple of shots (attached) for a quick comparison. Here are my thoughts on both cameras:
1.The S4 fires up the camera fast, in a second or so and your good to start snapping away. The Z is slow and takes a few seconds.
2.From EXIF data, I noticed that the S4 has a larger aperture of f2.2 compared to f2.4 for the Z. It’s not a big difference but still means the S4 will capture more light.
3.Burst rates on the S4 are simply breath taking, hold the shutter and you’ll be snapping away at 20 frames per second!
4.Autofocus is fast on both cameras.
5.From the samples, you can see that the photos from the S4 are sharper, more detailed, better exposed and white balance more accurate. The Z simply has too much compression and the photos end up losing detail and sharpness.
I like photography but I’m not a big fan of smartphone photography. To me, cameras on smartphones play a point and shoot role. It needs to fire up quick and get the shot done. Its supposed to be sophisticated (by todays standards) yet is simple to operate and have an easy to use interface. The S4 fits the job very well. I like the S4’s new camera UI, very intuitive and easy to use. The new addition of drama shot and eraser mode on the S4 sounds appealing but in practice it’s quite difficult to get it to work. With drama shot you have to keep a good distance away from the subject so it can be captured throughout the frame to make it work and it wasn’t working for me all the time. In respect to eraser mode, I have had no success with it yet.
Overall, the S4’s camera is a pleasure to use and gives you the feeling of wanting to shoot more pictures. The Z’s camera is not so bad and I’m sure the Z has good camera hardware but Sony needs to improve on the software. Hopefully, this will come soon with the next update.
May 11 – Round Up
Design & Feel
Xperia Z:
-Excellently crafted industrial design: from the details and precision of the power button, to the neatly recessed camera lens and the excellent fit & finish.
-Feels premium in hand. Nicely built and solid yet oozes a very distinctive sleek look.
-IMO the most beautifully designed Android smartphone to date, period! The HTC One is also very nice but I see a bit of following Apple’s suit. The Z shows that Sony really went back to the drawing board and gave us a new and unique product.
-It’s relatively comfortable in the hands but the straight edges may be of discomfort for some when holding it for prolong periods.
-Excellent placement of the power and volume buttons. The speaker is better on the side than on the back but I would have preferred it to be at the bottom to avoid accidentally covering it up when holding the phone.
S4:
-Having closely compared it with my wife’s Note 2, the S4’s design seems more of a downsized Note 2 with a slight facelift. Basically, it’s still that typical Samsung design, look and finish.
-Though I consider it a slight facelift, the changes and finishes does make it Samsung’s best looking phone to date. I kind of liked the diamond-checkered pattern and also found that the buttons are now nicely tapered and beveled. A nice touch.
-The form factor is very comfortable in the hand but feels a lot less solid compared to the Z.
-The home and capacitive button design will increase your usable screen estate by 0.5 inches.
Screen
Xperia Z:
-LCD technology, excellent clarity and details.
-Colors natural and closer to real life. Brava Engine 2 makes viewing photos and videos a pleasure and adds the pop back in the colors.
-Excellent visibility outdoors and in bright sunlight. Less reflective.
-Poor viewing angles and blacks & contrast may not be enough for some.
-I see a bit a of backlight bleeding and this does make the screen appear a little washed out at high brightness levels.
-IMO, kind of feel that Sony used a slightly sub-par display. I checked out the Z tablet yesterday and the screen does not exhibit similar issues.
S4:
-Samsung’s best Super AMOLED yet. Clarity and details par with the LCD. It’s hard to see the difference and I’d say 99% of people wouldn’t notice it.
-Excellent viewing angles and colors pop on this screen, it may be too saturated for some but the S4 provides the option of 4 screen modes to cater for different tastes.
-I’ve noticed that auto brightness allows higher brighter levels compared to manual setting. This is excellent as when in sunlight, the viewing experience was still comfortable.
-I prefer the natural colors of the Z more but the S4 screen has really grown on me. It is simply a superb screen and there is not much I can fault about it.
Performance & OS
-The S4 has the newer tech but in daily use both are just as capable of performing 99% of the tasks you throw at it.
-Power does not necessarily translate into speed. The S4 is well bloated out and consumes a massive 900mb of ram after boot up, whereas the Z is less than 600mb. Open up a few more apps and my S4 lags more than my Z. Your hardware is as good as your software and it’s evident that the software on the S4 is not fully optimized yet.
-Interface wise, the Z is refreshing, clean and minimal with some really nice touches and widgets, there’s also the excellent Walkman and Album (gallery) app that's second to none. If you like stock android, the Z is the closest you’ll get.
-The S4 has a lot of bells and whistles, some work well and others not, and that's all wrapped up in a dated Touchwiz interface. With 4.2.2 comes some nice UI improvements but it could have been better. The dull interface design just does not compliment the wonderful screen.
-Overall, despite a dated interface, Touchwiz does provide a fuller user experience. It’s not just a skin; it’s more of an eco-system which Samsung has put a lot of thought and effort into building.
Battery Performance
-There’s no argument on this one, the S4 has the better battery life. A slightly larger capacity and power efficient screen gives it the edge. Having used the S4 in the same way I have used my Z, the battery lasts well into the evening whereas with the Z it would have died on me by then.
-Another advantage is the option to be able to replace the S4 with a spare battery and this is definitely a convenience as well as a must for power users.
Call quality, Signal & Wi-Fi
-Both phones flared well with call quality and strength of signal.
-The in call audio on the Z has a lot of body but volume level low, whereas the on the S4 it’s crisp, loud and clear.
-The S4 has an adaptive sound capability which works very well as it tunes the audio to fit the listening capabilities of the left and right ears. Note this function works only in stock apps.
-The Z’s Wi-Fi capabilities are one of its weaknesses. Where I lost connection with the Z, the S4 stayed well connected.
Camera
-Despite the similar hardware, the S4 is a clear winner for me. The camera interface, ease of use and host of features make it hard to beat. It does what a smartphone camera is supposed to do but does it better.
-The Z is not a bad performer overall. All that is required is some tuning in its digital processing to improve clarity and sharpness in the photos.
Other Issues
-If you love listening to music on your phone, the Z and its Walkman provides the best audiophile I have ever heard on a smartphone.
-You won’t have headphone compatibility issues on the Z. There is a widespread problem with the S4, I don’t know if its software or hardware, but the audio clipping is frustrating and a nightmare! I had to resort to downgrading the headphone audiophile to avoid the problem.
Final Thoughts
The S4 and Z are excellent flagship smartphones. In the last 2 weeks, I’ve found the S4 to better the Z in some areas, but that should not put you off the Z. Why is that? Design, plastic, build quality and Touchwiz. If these factors bother you, then the S4 might not be the smartphone for you. The Xperia Z, on the other hand, is anything but cheap and plastic, while the interface is much more clean, simple and understated than Samsung’s Touchwiz.
I love the design of the Xperia Z, IMO it has the best balance in design, performance and software. That said, the Z isn’t perfect, the screen should have been better for a flagship and there are issues that need ironing out which hopefully will be fixed in the next software update not too distant away. The S4 has grown on me more than I expected. The plastic and its design doesn’t bother me anymore, I don’t even notice it. The screen looks more beautiful day by day and my work and productivity needs are handled better on the S4. I have also found that I prefer the home and capacitive touch buttons and enjoy the extra screen estate in the absence of the navigation bar. The software isn’t fully optimized, there is lag and Samsung seriously needs to do some work on it. Surprisingly though, at the start of the thread my choice was the Z but after 2 weeks, it appears the situation has changed and the truth is, the S4 suits my needs more. So, the S4 stays and the Z goes back for a refund. I wish I could have a mixture of both though! I highly recommend both devices, my top picks for 2013.

right now i'm holding both of them surely S4 is a winner

I can't agree with your comment until I have really had the chance to get to a complete usage and a thorough run through on the S4. At the end of day, whichever is the winner is purely a personal preference for me and may not be the case for others. If it wasn't for the free upgrade I would have never gone and bought the S4 because the design factor was the first thing that put me off. Now that I am fortunate enough to have both devices, I thought I'll make a thread to let others know how both compare in daily use. My intention is not to make a public judgement of which device is the winner but rather to express my findings on both devices, how well they work for me in a daily use and give members of the forum some factual experiences on both smartphones. Since you say S4 is a winner, perhaps you could share some of your thoughts with us?

I'm sure S4 is a very phone and will outsell XZ for sure, but I'm just sick of this brand (Yes, Samsung, is you!!), I had been using my SGS2 for a year until the emmc brickbug killed it. The thing get me so furious is Samsung said it's my fault and they would not provide any help unless I pay the maintenance fee, which cost about half of a new unit. How dare are they!?

Thanks for the review, I love it how you are accurate, keep it up dude!
Sent from my C6603 using xda premium

When I saw s4 I thought it will be exactly like s3 design like what most website said.
But not, it was nice and better than s3.
S4 is a good phone for everything.
Sent from my C6602 using xda app-developers app

cosinav said:
I can't agree with your comment until I have really had the chance to get to a complete usage and a thorough run through on the S4. At the end of day, whichever is the winner is purely a personal preference for me and may not be the case for others. If it wasn't for the free upgrade I would have never gone and bought the S4 because the design factor was the first thing that put me off. Now that I am fortunate enough to have both devices, I thought I'll make a thread to let others know how both compare in daily use. My intention is not to make a public judgement of which device is the winner but rather to express my findings on both devices, how well they work for me in a daily use and give members of the forum some factual experiences on both smartphones. Since you say S4 is a winner, perhaps you could share some of your thoughts with us?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find your 'professional' attitude a breath of fresh air. Congratulations in making an objective set of points rather than a fan boy rant.
I am finding it such a bore to come to the Sony Xperia Z forum to find more posts regarding other brands than the one we own? The more we negatively persist in comparing then rubbishing other brands the more we appear a group of losers. At least your comparison is written fairly with open eyes and not biased.
To date it appears the biggest enemy of the SXZ is its owners by bashing other brands?
Keep up the professional attitude and thanks for sharing your thoughts in a palatable fashion.
Bet wishes..

i very agree this. I'm also sick of Samsung now

Can you please compare battery life of these 2 monsters

Thanks for the post, it's the one I expected to see. I have a Xperia Z and I hesitate to buy a Galaxy S4 to replace it.
For the screen could you test to change the mode natural in mode video. According to the tests, it's the mode to have the best color next to the natural one. And after that, can you tell us, what you think about the screen and compare it to the Xperia Z.

brutal_noise said:
Can you please compare battery life of these 2 monsters
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this please!

Ryland Johnson said:
I find your 'professional' attitude a breath of fresh air. Congratulations in making an objective set of points rather than a fan boy rant.
I am finding it such a bore to come to the Sony Xperia Z forum to find more posts regarding other brands than the one we own? The more we negatively persist in comparing then rubbishing other brands the more we appear a group of losers. At least your comparison is written fairly with open eyes and not biased.
To date it appears the biggest enemy of the SXZ is its owners by bashing other brands?
Keep up the professional attitude and thanks for sharing your thoughts in a palatable fashion.
Bet wishes..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't think you've spent time anywhere else then because from what I've seen and heard, the Xperia has been the most bashed brand out there. Don't know what world you're living in if you think the bashing of other brands is worse in the Sony forums. You can't have spent any meaningful time in the Samsung forums or htc ones. Or YouTube or the web. To say that Sony fans are in some way more guilty of such things is strange to me indeed.
Fanboys are everywhere, human beings form needles emotional connections with things.
I too got some hands on time with the s4 today in store and first impressions, the black version looks ok. It doesn't scream plastic at you in the same way that the white one does and if Samsung keep putting out black phones, I could see myself owning one. I didn't mind so much the s2 like I did the s3 and I don't mind the s4 too. The ui was silky smooth. It just made want to seek out the Sony developers and scream "enough with all the transparency and animated widgets". It just causes ui glitches and stutters here and there. It may look nice but it's not, in my view, worth compromising on performance for eye candy.
It terms of daily usage, I seriously doubt that you'll notice much of a difference in performance than you'd get with any other quad core phone. 2011 line up included. In graphics intensive games perhaps but what percentage of users play such games on phones.
Its also worth noting that although, certain content might have a slightly bluish tint about them, the s4 doesn't suffer the same yellow screen problem suffered by a lot of high contrast LCD phones e.g. Htc one, iPhone 5, Xperia s etc.
It seems LCD displays cannot compete with amoled displays for vibrancy and contrast without this yellow tint problem. Perhaps that's why Sony walked away from that battle.
The S4's display is almost as clean and clear as the Zs but has more vibrancy. Too much still for me but others may love it. The bluish whites are the only real criticism.
To avoid mumbling on and to put it simply, the S4 is a phone I'd happily recommend.
Also the size and dimensions of the thing show the advantage of plastic for use in construction.
No on screen buttons but still smaller than the Z and equally as thin. It may not offer a premium feel buy there's still much value in its construction. I was thoroughly impressed with it as phone just as I am with the Sony. My two picks for 2013
Sent from my C6603 using xda app-developers app

zodiac100 said:
Don't think you've spent time anywhere else then because from what I've seen and heard, the Xperia has been the most bashed brand out there. Don't know what world you're living in if you think the bashing of other brands is worse in the Sony forums. You can't have spent any meaningful time in the Samsung forums or htc ones. Or YouTube or the web. To say that Sony fans are in some way more guilty of such things is strange to me indeed.
Fanboys are everywhere, human beings form needles emotional connections with things.
theSent from my C6603 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not a sheep and don't follow the crowd. The SXZ is a rather exceptional device and perhaps I expect those who own them to be exceptional and act accordingly? They say there is no such thing as bad publicity and to that end those who criticise the XZ at every opportunity and I agree they are out there, do us a favour? It should not be an excuse for us to write that other brands are poor.
Regards.

brutal_noise said:
Can you please compare battery life of these 2 monsters
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got my S4 today. Battery was at 52% when i turned it on. Used it till the Battery was down to 1%. 10 Hours with 3 Hours Screen on time. I call that pretty good for even no first charging cycle and during the first setup process

brutal_noise said:
Can you please compare battery life of these 2 monsters
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will be providing the first battery performance results tonight!
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda premium

thelittleidiot said:
Thanks for the post, it's the one I expected to see. I have a Xperia Z and I hesitate to buy a Galaxy S4 to replace it.
For the screen could you test to change the mode natural in mode video. According to the tests, it's the mode to have the best color next to the natural one. And after that, can you tell us, what you think about the screen and compare it to the Xperia Z.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I will do it tonight and update.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda premium

Higgins12 said:
I got my S4 today. Battery was at 52% when i turned it on. Used it till the Battery was down to 1%. 10 Hours with 3 Hours Screen on time. I call that pretty good for even no first charging cycle and during the first setup process
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right now i'm at 7 hours with 1 hour 30 mins screen time, 58% battery left from full charge.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda premium

This is really making for a good read, I must say, wish we had more reviewers like you.
I've got a I9500, wish I could get hold of the Htc One or Xperia Z and do a comparison, seems to be a lack of comparisons with it.
Anyway, keep up the great work!

Hi OP! Very nice & unbiased comparison of the two imo :good: ! Having played with the GS4, I mostly agree with your comparison/review.
However, I want you to comment upon the call signal/quality & "in call" volume of the two, if possible. Thanks.

I have the Xperia Z since 2 month. I've just bought the Galaxy S4, for several reasons : want to test it, the lack of update of the Xperia Z and the fact that my followers on my blog would like to have my point of view.
I change fastly the screen selection in video because i wanted to compare the best I can my two phones. The screen of the S4 is definitely better than the Xperia Z. The color are more next to the reality, but the more important is that the contrast is really really awesome in comparaison. The screen of the Z seems to be dull. I didn't test outdoor with sunlight (unfortunatly, the weather is rainy theses days where I live). But when I compared my Z with my iPhone 5, i couldn't use the Z on sunlight at the opposite of the iPhone.
With the Galaxy S4 in my hands, I find 3 defaults on the Z. The screen is definitely not good enough for the best smartphone of Sony. And more when we now the quality of the TV Sony, and the result we have when the bravia engine is activated (even if the colors become less natural). The second one is the form factor. The size of both phones are nearly the same. But the corner of the Xperia are not curve like the S4. So when we have both phones on the hand, the Z seems to be harder to use, less confortable. The last point is the camera (i didn't test yet the one of the S4, but i see many comparison). The camera of the Xperia Z is really worse than the one of the S4 even if it's normally the same cameramade by Sony.
The first and the third point could be correct by an update.
There's no bad point on the Galaxy S4 because i just received it, so i didn't find its defaults and consequently the better point on the Z.
It's just my point of view with my first with the S4.
Sorry for my english, I'm french. I just hope you understand what i mean in my sentences

Positive experience of Z1

So many negative threads about how the screen sucks, the camera sucks etc etc. Would be nice to hear from the people who actually like the Z1. Write down your experience with the phone. It doesn't have to be all rosy but hopefully it will give a little bit more nuance.

Sure.
Last Saturday I got my Z1, I've had a Gnex for a long time and my first impressions are very good. The device is amazingly fast, everything works as it should, multitasking is very good, all performance related things are nothing to complain about.
The screen 'dead-on' is also nice the viewing angles people are talking about is something I don't really see as a problem. I just held the phone in an angle and when the colours start to wash out it's an angle I would never use my phone at. Other than that the camera does have noise issues, although it's not too bad IMHO. (do bear in mind I come from the Gnex so pretty much every new device is a big upgrade) I don't think the noise issues aren't too bad though, as Sony can easily fix the noise issues with a software update. Speaking of updates, the Z1 already had 3 updates. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is up to you, but to me it sounds like it's well supported by Sony.
Battery... I feel mixed about it. It's better than my Gnex, but again, pretty much every device is. I did expect a lot more from a 3000 mAh battery though. I had about 23 hours of standby and roughly 4 hours of screen on time. That is with 3G on all the time, wifi on most of the time and applications like Twitter, Whatsapp and Facebook running in the background. It's a weird thing though, the xperia ZR gets 11:30 (11 hours and 30 minutes) of browsing in the GSMarena test. While the Z1 gets about half of that. I have the feeling Sony has to do some software optimization, since they can pull it off. (note: the ZR battery is 2300 mAh) How long this will take, and if Sony will even do it, I have no idea. If the problem is related to Qualcomm it may take a long time though since they're not very keen on doing things in a different way. (look at the Nexus 7 2013 and binaries)
Overall I personally think the Xperia Z1 is an amazing device. It's super fast, the build quality is amazing and it feels really good.(get a case though!) There are things to improve on such as battery life and it depends on whether you trust Sony to fix these issues or not.

Positve
Got mine yesterday.
S/W: problems yet
Performance: Extremely quick 9/10
Screen Quality: 8/10 but too early to say if I'm just being jaded by all the moaning.
Camera seems pretty good to me, what a blessing a proper camera button makes.
Shame I can't upload samples of photos / videos etc. I will find a way if request. Anyone wanna buy a Galaxy 3? ho ho..
Oh one thing I don't like, is having to uncover the charger port to charge it up (i know its re waterproofing).
My options are :-
Cut the cover flap off or buy a magnetic charger unit £30.00 !!!!! (I probably will.)
So far pretty dam good phone.
Paul

I've had my XZ1 since Saturday 21st sept, and so far I love it, the camera is good but has issues like the grain and noise which prevent it from being a great one.
Love the sharpness and colours of the screen and it's resolution makes browsing the Web or forums so easy.
I've gotten used to the waterproof tabs after having my Xtz before I got the z1 but at least if you don't like having to keep opening the flap you can use a magnetic charger cable or dock.
That's all I can think of at lol
Sent from my C6903 using XDA Premium HD app

screen is best... best contrast and color you can get... no yellow tint or extra blue. no issue at all..
screen performance not so good from an angle... but who use it like that... 98% i use head on... 2 % ready to sacrifice. for head on awesomeness..
battery is a ****. (Wifi and bluetooth on, may be due to this)
Auto mode of camera is a ****..
play around with ISO in manual mode to get best shot for each scenario...
sound from speaker is not so good... even headphone sound (wired) is not good...
performance... nothing can beat it... samsung s4 struggles before this beast..
i am still on 518 firmware and no software issue so far.. using wireless headphones...

jos_031 said:
screen is best... best contrast and color you can get... no yellow tint or extra blue. no issue at all..
screen performance not so good from an angle... but who use it like that... 98% i use head on... 2 % ready to sacrifice. for head on awesomeness..
battery is a ****. (Wifi and bluetooth on, may be due to this)
Auto mode of camera is a ****..
play around with ISO in manual mode to get best shot for each scenario...
sound from speaker is not so good... even headphone sound (wired) is not good...
performance... nothing can beat it... samsung s4 struggles before this beast..
i am still on 518 firmware and no software issue so far.. using wireless headphones...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me it's this above plus
Weird touch screen issues where it goes a bit bonkers when doing the pattern unlock.

Wow a positive thread about the Z1, do my eyes deceive me?
Seriously it's nice to see positive in all the threads of doom and gloom.
Nice
Sent from my C6903 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

My showers have become a lot less of a chore and more of a pleasure;
https://vine.co/v/hvY5MVFTLXd?fb_action_ids=10151847100714799
Just add 2 hooks with a little bit of sugru

So I got mine yesterday.
Hardware: I can't tell you how gorgeous this phone is if you haven't seen it yet, the blend of pure vanilla white with the aluminium frame is a spot on direct hit in my eyes. Under the hood HW is even better. The S800 chip seriously flies and it's been a long time but Android is now becoming just as fluid as iOS and WP and it's great to see that.
Software: I am a big fan of the Sony UI simply because it's easy and it looks pretty vanilla, I haven't installed a Homescreen in 2 years now ever since I got a Xperia S and I am not changing that now. There is some minor SW bugs where some dialouges just doesn't show up but I can still press them(if I know their real position)
Camera: The camera is a serious SW mess because I know and I see that Sony has a good camera HW-wise BUT their SW and esspecially Auto mode is seriously one complete mess. Other than the major problems with the noise the camera app is fluid and it's quite promosing to have some nice options like AR and the Livestream mode.
Sound: THe loudspeaker is decent and nothing you would cheer about but it's better than my old XS of course. The headphone jack for me is perfect and I hear absolutely no difference when playing the same song on my XS or my Z1
Screen: THe screen for me is supersharp, I can only see a little difference in sharpness between my XS and Z1 but that is expected but still it's a nice feature. The colours are almost accurate(I had to increase my blue level by +3 to +4), viewing angles aren't the best but they are clearly better than my XS besides head on is the way to go in my world.
Battery: Battery is a mixed bag; Standby is EXCELLENT hours can go and the phone is still on the same percentage. However and this is a big one the battery during Web browsing or other minor things is seriously underperforming. Clearly this is also something wrong with the SW because other Sony phones does not have the same problem.
I hope this gives a good view on the phone, clearly Sony needs to fix the battery and the Camera and for some swap out faulty screens. Other than that my money was well put!

I got my XZ1 on monday and I love it so far! Yeah the viewing angles aren't the best but who is gonna use their phone from those angles? The camera is good, yes it needs some improvements but it isn't unusable.
The waterproof tabs take some getting used to after coming from a Nexus 4 but my battery lasts me about a day and a half almost 2; so I don't have to undo the tab to often.
I like the speaker, it isn't as loud as the one on the Note 2 I had but it is WAY better than the Nexus 4. I really like the notification LED also, its in a really discrete location and its pretty visible; and paired with light manager it is really useful for me.
Wifi has also been good for me, at least compared to my old N4. The overall speed of the phone is awesome! This thing rips!
Coming from the Nexus 4 this was a SOLID upgrade for me. SD card slot, better camera, Snapdragon 800, better speakers (ear piece also), and its waterproof? I can't really complain on my end!
I think people are just being a little too picky. I mean come on the phone has only been out for almost a week now. What else can you expect? Sony has been releasing updates pretty frequently so hopefully everything will get better soon.

So i will do that short: Sony Xperia Z1 is just good. Not perfect. but good and defently better as my old Xperia S. (Whiches i aso not so bad if i compare to to other cellphone from this timewindow)

Mine is good so far, only got it for 2days will test camera etc some more
One thing I can say about the screen:
I went to local store and compared to ZU screen, both on full brightness and my Z1 screen definitely has better colors and details then Z1. I tried the Sony sample pics and compared those.
Better details is due to 5" vs 6.4" I guess. But colors are really better on Z1, also in video I noticed the same result
Sent from my C6903 using xda app-developers app

Love the z1
Got the Z1 on pre-order, arrived the 17th.
- First thing i notice, phone is not bulky (in oposition to what reviewers say). Second thing, sony actually provides screen protect (Awsome)
- Phone turns on great and continues to perform great, Loving 4g and the speed and smoothness of the whole system.
- Screen contrast is not superb, lost in comparison to the s4, but during video streaming/playback, it performed amazingly as being hit directly by sunlight it was still very clear.
- Overall The phone is amazing, everyone says constantly i can't stop playing around with it (so true).
The only negative i have is battery life. Due to my constant use it drains very very quickly. But i think i'll be able to fix that.

B1nny said:
Sure.
Last Saturday I got my Z1, I've had a Gnex for a long time and my first impressions are very good. The device is amazingly fast, everything works as it should, multitasking is very good, all performance related things are nothing to complain about.
....
Overall I personally think the Xperia Z1 is an amazing device. It's super fast, the build quality is amazing and it feels really good.(get a case though!) There are things to improve on such as battery life and it depends on whether you trust Sony to fix these issues or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see you're from the Netherlands. Could you confirm we are still on 14.1.G.1.518 firmware? It seems everyone who has been able to upgrade to 534 firmware has far better camera results, yet I cannot update to this new firmware, still stuck on the old one. I'd love to update the firmware to get better camera results but I do not want to root this phone. I'm on Vodafone RED 4G btw, dunno if it mathers.. Thanks.

bramgg said:
I see you're from the Netherlands. Could you confirm we are still on 14.1.G.1.518 firmware? It seems everyone who has been able to upgrade to 534 firmware has far better camera results, yet I cannot update to this new firmware, still stuck on the old one. I'd love to update the firmware to get better camera results but I do not want to root this phone. I'm on Vodafone RED 4G btw, dunno if it mathers.. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am. I can confirm I didn't get any updates on my unlocked Z1. I updated to 534 manually via flashtool though. (doesn't void warranty) I have no idea why we don't get the updates pushed to our phones.

thought i'd give my 2 cents here as i have been seeing a lot of negative comments, especially from people who judge way too quickly. Back when the Z came out i followed it madly and already had it on pre-order but i ended up getting a htc one. Ive had this phone for 2 days now and compared to my htc one it is a definite improvement. The only thing im getting used to is the size of the phone, i have small hands so you can imagine its not a 1 handed affair, but you cant fault the build quality, i love the fact that sony puts its own screen and back panel protector on (remember the x10). Call quality is amazing i have to say, loud and clear. performance is amazing, i can see the improvements in the chipset s800 has over s600 (was in my htc one), in real life you wont notice it too much but its defo there, games run amazing no lags and hits a very good fps (wild blood, real racing 3 in particular looks and plays amazingly). I've not really played with the camera much but its better than my htc one, that was the only thing i was disappointed with that phone. Now i have been constantly messing about with the phone so cant really give an accurate example of battery life, but what are you supposed to expect from a phone specc'd like this, yes it has a bigger capacity battery, it also has a big screen and a powerful cpu too, if i get a full days use out of it il be happy.

The Z1 is easily the best phone ever built. Its so nice to hold and use. Definitely my favourite phone to date and I have owned nearly all the previous flagship phones from most companies.

Absolutely blown away by this phone it's just amazing for me.
Sent from my C6903 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Xperia Z1 music video

Hi,
I'm totally new to android and the Z1 is my first personal android phone. My expectations where so high coming from many years of All iPhones.
I don't want to start a flame but yes I think android is a little behind (in some aspects) to ios7 BUT this device is actually freaking awesome and looks to me the only one that can beat the iPhone quality.
- High quality. When you touch it you feel that your money are well spent.
- The camera (if we consider is a phone) Is just super good.
- The Sony rom doesn't make me sad as and in a hurry to grab a random 3th party rom
- Display is super good colors looks real and rich. Yes view angles are not awesome but only crazy people use the phone in that way. One thing that NO ONE MENTION is that any phone is close to the iPhone under the sun. Surprise surprise according to phone arena the Z1 is in 2 place. That's for me means A LOT more than insane view angles. The only difect so far is the black. The display show (only in some circumstances) one of the lightest black on the market. You'll may notice it watching a movie (a dark one) in a dark room.
- screen protector: isn't so fragile as many said but yes isn't olephobic
Am I satisfied? A lot!!!!
Sent from my C6903 using xda app-developers app

[Discussion] OnePlus X User Opinions and Reviews

Invites are going out, and devices should be shipping soon. So, if you have a OnePlus X, please give us your first impressions and thoughts about the device. Tell us about the display, sound, feel, camera, quality or whatever else comes to mind. If you've had any problems, we'd also like to know about that too.
Unboxing pics are encouraged
So, who will go first?

Placed my order. Waiting for it to be shipped to m in London.

geko95gek said:
Placed my order. Waiting for it to be shipped to m in London.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may very well get something up before the professional reviews come out!

First "real world" experiences are being posted by a user from Paris who was able to grab one at Colette. As I am still a new user, I can't post the link.
Googling "OnePlus X Review" will however do the trick (first hit on oneplus.net).

jim_bocho said:
First "real world" experiences are being posted by a user from Paris who was able to grab one at Colette. As I am still a new user, I can't post the link.
Googling "OnePlus X Review" will however do the trick (first hit on oneplus.net).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/review-of-oneplus-x.398665/

CafeKampuchia said:
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!

Hey, i'm the 20th person who bought it! I was in Paris on monday at Colette !
My review will be short because i'm not that good in english (sorry for that btw).
I really like the phone. It's actually the best design i have ever seen. Looks so premium!
The screen is the only bad point. Whites are kinda yellow and it's blue when you look from the sides.
The camera is really great, better than my z3c.
Battery is good without being amazing. (4h sot)
Only 39k antutu and it's kinda laggy with one game i tried (Minipix). But other games work fine
The phone is really smooth to use

Hey guys, I received my OP X yesterday and I'm actually really satisfated thats celarly the best phone I never had, No lag, Nice 4g, charging actually fast, and ... So beatiful. I recommend it to anyone who wants to get a cheap and powerful device
(Live in Paris got it at Colette)
,
Envoyé de mon ONE E1003 avec XDA Forums

PoloB49 said:
Hey, i'm the 20th person who bought it! I was in Paris on monday at Colette !
The camera is really great, better than my z3c.
Battery is good without being amazing. (4h sot)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here here, I'm coming from a z3c too. Really, the camera is better on the 1+x? Both indoors and outdoors?

charliebigpot said:
here here, I'm coming from a z3c too. Really, the camera is better on the 1+x? Both indoors and outdoors?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's right. But i'm not a professional photographer, i use Auto on both phones. I know some people who can do great things with their z3c thanks to some custom settings

Awesome phone, the new Nexus killer!

Initial impressions
The phone is great until now
Build is simply amazing even if u don't consider the price. The screen too is brilliant, it's a bit over saturated but colours pop and blacks are stunning thanks to the amoled panel. The camera is quick, focus is fast, shots taken in good lighting are great but OK with low lighting. Similar for the front camera. The performance is great. Smooth and fast. Battery life has been good till now. Audio from the downward facing speaker is good imo.
Let's see how it goes

got mine on 7th in india.
battery 6/5
camera 5/5 - need to retest low light performance with the latest 17 mb OTA but without it night shots were average.
screen 6/5
feel4/5 its slippery plastic cover is a must
look 5/5
apps 5/5 no bloatware
cons
camera app needs to give more granular control
permissions control doesnt give the option of hiding device id etc.
fab device overall.

Got mine today. My last device was a sony z3c and ofc this one has some pros and cons facing the previous I had. The OPX has indeed a very good build quality, feels great in the hand. Size is perfect imo. Has no bloatware at all, comparing to the sony that has nothing but bloatware. Talking about this, I missed a gallery app, this phone does not come with an app to show the photos or videos in your device, what in my opinion is a must have, specially in a near stock android rom. Camera is good, fast and precise. Love the gestures features. Sound is loud enough and clear, in the speaker and in calls. It loses to the z3c in battery life once it has a smaller battery and a bigger screen, and once that z3c is one of the most battery friendly devices i knew. In the OPX I miss a fingerprint scanner, fast battery charging and the oxygen OS has a lot of room for improvements.

theduardo said:
Got mine today. My last device was a sony z3c and ofc this one has some pros and cons facing the previous I had. The OPX has indeed a very good build quality, feels great in the hand. Size is perfect imo. Has no bloatware at all, comparing to the sony that has nothing but bloatware. Talking about this, I missed a gallery app, this phone does not come with an app to show the photos or videos in your device, what in my opinion is a must have, specially in a near stock android rom. Camera is good, fast and precise. Love the gestures features. Sound is loud enough and clear, in the speaker and in calls. It loses to the z3c in battery life once it has a smaller battery and a bigger screen, and once that z3c is one of the most battery friendly devices i knew. In the OPX I miss a fingerprint scanner, fast battery charging and the oxygen OS has a lot of room for improvements.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does, it comes with google photos lol

geko95gek said:
It does, it comes with google photos lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you're right but Google Photos is a cloud service, I'm talking about a local gallery app where you can see all your folders and media on the device.

theduardo said:
Yes you're right but Google Photos is a cloud service, I'm talking about a local gallery app where you can see all your folders and media on the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can see it in Google photos as well. Anyways if it's not your cup of tea, look on OP forums. Someone linked the cyanogenmod gallery app which works well.

geko95gek said:
You can see it in Google photos as well. Anyways if it's not your cup of tea, look on OP forums. Someone linked the cyanogenmod gallery app which works well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not a major problem, I've downloaded some 3rd party app from playstore. By the way, do you know if there's any way to save the pictures taken with the camera in the SD card instead of internal?

theduardo said:
It's not a major problem, I've downloaded some 3rd party app from playstore. By the way, do you know if there's any way to save the pictures taken with the camera in the SD card instead of internal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No not yet. In a Q&A session today one of the OP staff said they are planning to implement that in a near future.

I bought my X last Saturday at the London pop-up event. Thankfully I got a VIP invite so queuing wasn't an issue (more than 50m long when I left). A free phone cover (only the plastic ones, no wood (which seem to be plastic with a very thin layer of wood on both sides), no sandstone), a T-shirt, another invite and a notebook (paper ) were in the stylish bag besides the phone.
Much has been said before about the build quality which I can only confirm. It's very slippery though so the transparent phone cover from the box does a good job without disturbing the good looks too much. Don't peel the screen protector off together with the 'Never Settle' sticker!
The screen is good indeed but I would think the one of my OPO isn't worse or rather better, sharper. Thanks to the three LEDs per pixel (is it Pentile? Don't know!) the display is very slightly grainy but you have to look very closely. The screen of my HTC One M7 is definitely sharper though.
All phones are quick when new and this one wasn't an exception. Compared to the Exodus ROM I'm running on the OPO everything seems to be a bit choppy, animations are not as smooth. Turning forced GPU rendering on didn't make a difference. The first OTA update helped a bit but not by a huge margin. So far I haven't noticed any changes after the 2nd OTA update which came yesterday in the morning.
After now full four days I still like the phone for its size, everything works without a problem, no crashes, no freezing, Wifi and BT (tested only with a Braven 625s speaker) work without a glitch and so does Wifi Direct (tested with my Samsung 300NX camera). Charging takes about 2hrs, no QuickCharge here, but that also doesn't work on my OPO despite using an array of QuickCharge enabled chargers (all by Aukey). I seem to get a better phone signal compared to the OPO, Wifi also seems to be a bit stronger. Battery life is good, just about enough for one day with my usage (which at the moment means about 7 hours a day without phone signal (work in a basement) which no doubt reduces the battery life), definitely less than with the OPO but that's not really surprising. I've only tested the camera a few times, in those cases the focus was extremely fast and reliable, the picture quality - watched on the phone and zoomed in to the maximum - isn't DSLR like but still ok for Instagram, Facebook and for watching photos on the phone. No issues with the flash, I can turn it on and off and also the Auto mode works fine.
I'm still a bit torn between the OPO and the X, the latter being the nicer looking one and easier to handle, one-handed in almost all situations. The OPO's screen size is of course better suited to browsing and watching Youtube videos, on the other hand the phone can't be comfortably used one-handed most of the time and it's really big in my Jeans pocket. My OPO with Exodus seems to run a bit smoother, but when I once installed Oxygen on it it was absolutely awfully slow and choppy, so this is maybe rather software-related than down to the hardware.
I'm open for questions but I'm not going to drop the phone to test the durability of the glass panes and I'm also not going to run any battery drain tests. It's really, really strange what sort of people are trolling about in the official OP forums, 50% braindeads I would reckon :cyclops:

One week with the Redmi Note 4

Received my RN4 last week, and after spending a week with it I am definitely impressed.
Observations
1. Battery life is the phone's strongest suit. Can definitely get even better SOT if I was more careful using this thing, but fact is this is the first phone I've owned that I only need to charge once a day. (See attachment for SOT)
2. Build quality is solid as well, but definitely not top notch. Seams can still felt, and SIM tray is a bit hard to push in.
3. Display is great. Nothing out of the ordinary.
4. Helio X20 is a solid chip, but Javascript performance is underwhelming. Does not appear to have many benefits over the SD650.
5. Camera is underwhelming, quality is around the level of the Moto X 2014, but PD focus is quick and accurate, unlike the CDAF on the X14.
6. MIUI is not as intrusive as most Western media will have you believe, but I do not like the aggressiveness with which it kills background processes. GSam Battery monitor doesnt work reliably as it always gets kicked.
7. One handed usage is poor. The next model could definitely use smaller bezels on the X axis.
8. I got an update last week for "bug fixes", but was strangely 1.3GB big and took over an hour to download and install.
Overall, for $200, I'm definitely impressed. Can't say I feel a noticeable performance difference with my last phone, the Galaxy S7. Only place I can feel I got what I paired for is the camera.

AB__CD said:
Received my RN4 last week, and after spending a week with it I am definitely impressed.
Observations
1. Battery life is the phone's strongest suit. Can definitely get even better SOT if I was more careful using this thing, but fact is this is the first phone I've owned that I only need to charge once a day. (See attachment for SOT)
2. Build quality is solid as well, but definitely not top notch. Seams can still felt, and SIM tray is a bit hard to push in.
3. Display is great. Nothing out of the ordinary.
4. Helio X20 is a solid chip, but Javascript performance is underwhelming. Does not appear to have many benefits over the SD650.
5. Camera is underwhelming, quality is around the level of the Moto X 2014, but PD focus is quick and accurate, unlike the CDAF on the X14.
6. MIUI is not as intrusive as most Western media will have you believe, but I do not like the aggressiveness with which it kills background processes. GSam Battery monitor doesnt work reliably as it always gets kicked.
7. One handed usage is poor. The next model could definitely use smaller bezels on the X axis.
8. I got an update last week for "bug fixes", but was strangely 1.3GB big and took over an hour to download and install.
Overall, for $200, I'm definitely impressed. Can't say I feel a noticeable performance difference with my last phone, the Galaxy S7. Only place I can feel I got what I paired for is the camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the feedback, I also have an S7 and on the verge of selling to buy either the note 4 or the redmi pro. I know it will generally be a downgrade especially in terms of camera as nothing can touch the S7. But it seems a great device and would let me free up some cash. The redmi pro seems to have a better camera than the RN4 although a bit gimmicky with its dual cams, but both pack nice builds and big batteries. Although I think the RN4's finger print scanner looks better and is in a better location, I'm not really that impressed with the S7's as it still needs to be pushed and isn't that accurate. How do you find audio quality over say a pair of headphones compared to the S7?
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

gsmyth said:
Thanks for the feedback, I also have an S7 and on the verge of selling to buy either the note 4 or the redmi pro. I know it will generally be a downgrade especially in terms of camera as nothing can touch the S7. But it seems a great device and would let me free up some cash. The redmi pro seems to have a better camera than the RN4 although a bit gimmicky with its dual cams, but both pack nice builds and big batteries. Although I think the RN4's finger print scanner looks better and is in a better location, I'm not really that impressed with the S7's as it still needs to be pushed and isn't that accurate. How do you find audio quality over say a pair of headphones compared to the S7?
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very loud, and decently clean and crisp too. There seems to be some decent audio equipment on this thing, both speakers and headphone, and I suspect there may be a discrete DAC on this, impressive for a $200 device. I went for the RN4 over the Pro for one reason and one reason only: there is an official global ROM out for this phone, while the Pro would require me to install GP package through a third-party solution.
I can definitely say that the FPS is way better on the back. Very accurate, and as long as I don't give it some super-weird angle it authenticates me without fail, quicker and more accurately than the S7.

AB__CD said:
Very loud, and decently clean and crisp too. There seems to be some decent audio equipment on this thing, both speakers and headphone, and I suspect there may be a discrete DAC on this, impressive for a $200 device. I went for the RN4 over the Pro for one reason and one reason only: there is an official global ROM out for this phone, while the Pro would require me to install GP package through a third-party solution.
I can definitely say that the FPS is way better on the back. Very accurate, and as long as I don't give it some super-weird angle it authenticates me without fail, quicker and more accurately than the S7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great that's good to hear, I assumed there was a global rom for the pro but must have been something else I seen. I had a feeling the finger print scanner was better, I do find the S7's quite fussy and a lot of times I exceed the try limit and have to wait 30 secs[emoji34].
I really do appreciate the camera on the S7, although from the reviews I've watched the RN4 seems to have very quick auto focus and capture speeds. It obviously seems to suffer in low light but no phone is immune from this really only to lesser extents. I generally take most photos outside in good conditions anyway and usually of the kids where a quick shutter is needed. The camera app also seems fast to launch as well which again is an important to be able to snap photos quickly.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Wich rom are you using? Do you root it?

gsmyth said:
Great that's good to hear, I assumed there was a global rom for the pro but must have been something else I seen. I had a feeling the finger print scanner was better, I do find the S7's quite fussy and a lot of times I exceed the try limit and have to wait 30 secs[emoji34].
I really do appreciate the camera on the S7, although from the reviews I've watched the RN4 seems to have very quick auto focus and capture speeds. It obviously seems to suffer in low light but no phone is immune from this really only to lesser extents. I generally take most photos outside in good conditions anyway and usually of the kids where a quick shutter is needed. The camera app also seems fast to launch as well which again is an important to be able to snap photos quickly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fingerprint scanner really is great. Worlds better than the S7. Location isn't always ideal for when the phone is on a table top, but it is great when pulling the phone out of the pocket. I suspect that the only way to solve this is give people two Fingerprint scanners
Camera launches quickly and focus is reliable. Better than my 2014 Moto X ever was. Shutter is not as fast as the reviews make it out to be, but that may be because I have HDR on Auto, and HDR photos do take a while to process. Outside photos are reasonably crisp, inside the noise starts to become uncontrollable. Remember to go to Settings and select image quality "High" and enable "Enhance lowlight pictures automatically" when you get this phone. Hugely important, as the default Medium setting is too aggressive in compressing.

AB__CD said:
Received my RN4 last week, and after spending a week with it I am definitely impressed.
Observations
1. Battery life is the phone's strongest suit. Can definitely get even better SOT if I was more careful using this thing, but fact is this is the first phone I've owned that I only need to charge once a day. (See attachment for SOT)
2. Build quality is solid as well, but definitely not top notch. Seams can still felt, and SIM tray is a bit hard to push in.
3. Display is great. Nothing out of the ordinary.
4. Helio X20 is a solid chip, but Javascript performance is underwhelming. Does not appear to have many benefits over the SD650.
5. Camera is underwhelming, quality is around the level of the Moto X 2014, but PD focus is quick and accurate, unlike the CDAF on the X14.
6. MIUI is not as intrusive as most Western media will have you believe, but I do not like the aggressiveness with which it kills background processes. GSam Battery monitor doesnt work reliably as it always gets kicked.
7. One handed usage is poor. The next model could definitely use smaller bezels on the X axis.
8. I got an update last week for "bug fixes", but was strangely 1.3GB big and took over an hour to download and install.
Overall, for $200, I'm definitely impressed. Can't say I feel a noticeable performance difference with my last phone, the Galaxy S7. Only place I can feel I got what I paired for is the camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using RN4 for 2 weeks. And I do agree most of the views.
1. Battery: it seems not that good if you care about the numbers. But the overall performance is pretty good. Playing some 3d games with performance for an hour costs less than 10%.
2. CPU: I don't think this is a big leap as I can't from Nexus 5. The performance is not overkill. And I don't feel anything is super smooth. I guess the reason is that 10 cores are still to much for an Android system to operate with. I doubt the kernel fully utilizes the CPU.
3. Camera: don't expect much on it even though they claimed it's 16MP. The quality is quite glitchy in my opinion. If you really care about the quality of the camera on your phone, consider carefully. Despite the quality, the speed is fine as the focus, HDR and burst mode work perfectly fine.
4. MIUI: I just want a CM. That's it.
5. Price: this is the most pulling reason for me to buy this. You can just switch to a new one if this breaks somehow. :laugh:

Hello.
My name is Gabriel, from Romania.
I have a redminote 4 since 25 october 2016.
Since yesterday it doesn't display, in the upper right corner, the icon for mobile data - you know, the H, or H+, or 4G or 3G, next to mobile network signal icon.
The mobile data connection is working good, but the fact that the phone is connected to mobile data is not displayed any more.
Is there any setting for this?
Thanks.

Gabriel Sbircea said:
Hello.
My name is Gabriel, from Romania.
I have a redminote 4 since 25 october 2016.
Since yesterday it doesn't display, in the upper right corner, the icon for mobile data - you know, the H, or H+, or 4G or 3G, next to mobile network signal icon.
The mobile data connection is working good, but the fact that the phone is connected to mobile data is not displayed any more.
Is there any setting for this?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you solve this? Are you on the global rom?
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

No.
I had the intention to perform a factory reset during this weekend, but I didn't, I was too busy with other things.
And yes, is the Global ROM - I have Romanian language (not only...)
Thanks.

Gabriel Sbircea said:
No.
I had the intention to perform a factory reset during this weekend, but I didn't, I was too busy with other things.
And yes, is the Global ROM - I have Romanian language (not only...)
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A factory reset is probably the best option take first although it is a pain having to backup/ set everything up again.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 video review

Originalas said:
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 video review
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks will watch this later.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

gsmyth said:
Did you solve this? Are you on the global rom?
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello
I have black screen with my Redmi Note 4 but led of charge work have you some ideas how can i solve this issue?
Thanks

2 weeks here...
I bought the Redmi Note 4 - S625 32 GB version as a replacement for another phone from another vendor, my old phone had the same hardware configuration, but was greatly lagging on performance, battery life and customization.
I have long decided on the Redmi, and have gone through several resources and reviews online, and was so far satisfied with what I read.
I was able to buy it at a discounted price in Egypt (USD 160), this is of course not a bargain for the global price, yet locally it was good compared to other similar devices.
I'll go through every aspect of my experience with the phone and provide you with my conclusion in the end.
The phone comes in a small box compared to other phones of the same size, the phone fits in exactly, with the charger and the charging cable, the extra space could've been better used to add earphones to the bundle, something Xiaomi should consider in the future, is to throw in one of their premium earphones.
The phone size is slim and nice to hold, something that counts for it, considering the huge 4100mA battery, I was unfortunate to buy the black edition, which is very prone to fingerprints and you can never keep it clean, let alone it also seemed scratch prone, I didn't want to risk it therefore the first thing I had to do was to go for a silicon cover.
Also the screen glass is clear with smooth edges, and gives the phone a very elegant look, yet I read it's not gorilla glass, so I had to go for a glass screen protector.
The screen is large enough with some bevel edges that could be improved in the future.
The dual SIM slot is an amazing idea, yet with a bit of better design I guess we can squeeze in a place for a memory card.
The camera and fingerprint sensor are very well placed and nice to use, having the camera non-protruding is a good design point, protecting the camera cover from scratches.
I don't mind the camera being 13MP, it has a clear quality, works well with the camera app, and is quiet responsive, I've seen cameras with higher resolution, but were a pain to operate, so good job Xiaomi.
The screen is clear and pleasant to use, I have even use it to watch movies using a VR box with no problems, it is also quiet visible in the sun with bright colors.
One thing I really liked about this phone, is its battery life, I guess Xiaomi went to great effort to squeeze much power into the battery space, and to optimize the power use by applications, clearly there is a power optimization software layer added to the OS to perform this well, I am a heavy user, having the phone in hand all day with the screen on, reading, watching videos, and streaming internet videos and music in the car all day, using maps and GPS applications, and acting as a Wi-Fi hotspot. Still at night, before sleeping, I plug the charger while the phone is at 40%, keeping me assured that even if I forget to charge the phone, it will remain there for another day of moderate use. BATTERY LIFE ON THIS PHONE IS AMAZING.
I have seen people complain that it doesn’t have a fast charging capability, yet it's no problem with a phone that can withhold its charge for two days.
The good thing about this phone is that it has all connectivity features of other similar phones, except for the NFC, which is becoming a defacto nowadays, though the FM radio is good and launches without any headphone connected, however the lack of RDS is a bit annoying, in addition to the fact that the radio interface is boring and non-themeable, I have posted this suggestion in the MIUI forum.
Software performance on this phone is amazing, and the dual app capability is extra nice, it is better than having the second space activated, specially with the availability of individual app locking capability, I can have my work and personal applications in the same space, while giving my work applications the necessary security level required. This beats all other phones offering second space while hogging the memory and system resources, and affecting the performance.
Also Xiaomi's keeping to its promise of a very responsive MIUI, even with an alternative launcher (I'll come to that later), I'm getting a very good performance, no launch delays, no botchy performance, etc... Which shows that enough effort has been put into OS optimization.
I haven't tried installing a custom OS yet, and this is mainly due to the fact that the factory OS is very well performing and doesn't need further optimization, till now!!
I had to resort to installing a third party launcher (Nova Launcher), since I didn't really like the way MIUI launcher treats the applications, without an application drawer, desktops can become really cluttered, specially that I always test new apps and remove them regularly. This may be convenient for iPhone users, but a no no in our Android world, Xiaomi should reconsider.
A nice addition to the UI is the floating ball, it comes with useful shortcuts, but to change them you have to dig deep into the settings, certainly there should be a better way to do this, still it is a good addition.
The screenshot shortcut saves a shot of the current screen and can later send you to the editing part if you need to crop and edit your shot, it would be better if a crop control can appear when a screenshot is requested, so that we can directly choose which part of the screen we want to capture and share directly.
The phone came with android marshmallow, but as soon as I started using it, a new update with nougat was pushed, I also guess and Oreo version in in the pipeline, still you can have the Oreo taste from any custom rom available for this phone, which are really numerous in comparison to phones from other vendors, I guess Xiaomi should capitalize on this as being one of the most custom ROM friendly phones.
The phone, contacts, and messaging native aps are quiet usable, and so far I haven't faced any problem with them, in comparison to other phones that sometimes struggled with my 1500 entry contact list, the Xiaomi is fully capable of handling such a contact list dispersed among two contact providers (google contact and exchange server), and fully capable of flawlessly handling them.
One small glitch with the messaging app is the inability to delete the newly received SMS from the notification area, something that is usually needed nowadays.
Coming to the notification area, I've seen it better implemented in other phones or ROM versions, where you can get full access to the complete message, and be able control it (delete or reply) from the notification area, I know that in MIUI there is the capability to expand the notification for more details by a two finger swipe, but this is impossible with one handed operation.
The phone also comes with nice extra applications, the security app is quiet useful, and hopefully it does what it promises in the background.
The remote app is also a great addition, making you able to control a vast list of IR enabled devices; yet it should be a good addition to be able to add and customize new non-listed devices, such as for example non-standard android tv boxes.
In conclusion:
I really love this phone and don't regret the investment I put in it, Xiaomi is on a very good track, it should soon reach and surpass market leaders if it keeps building such impressive devices with affordable prices, also having that MIUI forum and its community is a good addition of keeping the users close to the vendor.
My recommendation is to work on the software enhancements requested by the users.
My recommendations to the new buyers, is to install good screen and body protection, stay away from the black version, and invest in a good quality headphones to enjoy your Xiaomi.