Database Users

Owners' Impression

Those who already have the device, post your impression / comments.
I own the TL10 version. It's been a few days in my hands. I can confirm that LTE works in Singapore, Malaysia (just came back from there) and Japan (I remember reading somewhere that it's compatible with most European and Asian networks).
I decided to get the phone because I'm too worried about Note 4 battery life, Xperia Z3 being too small, unable to get the latest Pantech phones (A910 & A920) due to their recent bankruptcy which scared off my usual supplier and also the unavailability of Vibe Z2 Pro at the time. Those were the other phones I had considered before settling with Mate 7.
I'm pleased by its slim bezels and thinness. Impressed by its battery life, currently low battery after I pulled off the charger almost 48 hours ago, used it to call and text people, find my way to the airport using Google navigation, listened to music in flight, layover in Hong Kong, another flight to Tokyo, 2 hours transiting in Tokyo subways, then used it for browsing while I rested this whole day. Simply superb.
Issues I've noticed so far:
Unable to change launcher (can't remove Huawei launcher from default)
Navigation bar sometimes freezes, doesn't response, had to hide it and showed it again to make it work (hopefully just firmware issue).
Haven't found easy way to root it.
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-TL10 using XDA Free mobile app

We can remotely root the device for you.
GetMobilePhone

Fulvian said:
Those who already have the device, post your impression / comments.
I own the TL10 version. It's been a few days in my hands. I can confirm that LTE works in Singapore, Malaysia (just came back from there) and Japan (I remember reading somewhere that it's compatible with most European and Asian networks).
I decided to get the phone because I'm too worried about Note 4 battery life, Xperia Z3 being too small, unable to get the latest Pantech phones (A910 & A920) due to their recent bankruptcy which scared off my usual supplier and also the unavailability of Vibe Z2 Pro at the time. Those were the other phones I had considered before settling with Mate 7.
I'm pleased by its slim bezels and thinness. Impressed by its battery life, currently low battery after I pulled off the charger almost 48 hours ago, used it to call and text people, find my way to the airport using Google navigation, listened to music in flight, layover in Hong Kong, another flight to Tokyo, 2 hours transiting in Tokyo subways, then used it for browsing while I rested this whole day. Simply superb.
Issues I've noticed so far:
Unable to change launcher (can't remove Huawei launcher from default)
Navigation bar sometimes freezes, doesn't response, had to hide it and showed it again to make it work (hopefully just firmware issue).
Haven't found easy way to root it.
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-TL10 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you mind flying over to the US and testing it on T-Mobile?
LOL/jk
Thanks for giving your impressions of the device. Have you found it to be any more laggy/buggy than other Android devices that you've owned? Also, does your device say TD-LTE on the box or FDD-LTE?

On the box it only says "TD-LTE". Mine is the vmall.com 32GB gold version. Everything has been snappy. Only lag I notice is when pressing multi-task button, there's noticeable delay until the list of recent apps show up. Also, I notice navigation bar, toggles, settings, icons, pretty much all the UI aspects look like Android L, perhaps Huawei is already working on L and basing the Emotion 3.0 from L?
Sent from my HUAWEI MT7-TL10 using XDA Free mobile app

I own the TL10 version too for 3 weeks now. I'm living in Switzerland and can confirm LTE works here.
Fulvian said:
I decided to get the phone because I'm too worried about Note 4 battery life, Xperia Z3 being too small, unable to get the latest Pantech phones (A910 & A920) due to their recent bankruptcy which scared off my usual supplier and also the unavailability of Vibe Z2 Pro at the time. Those were the other phones I had considered before settling with Mate 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly the same for me except I didn't know that Pantech brand.
Battery life is impressive. It's due to a good battery management. For example, Mate 7 notices you when Google Play services are running in background so you can stop the processes. There's also a "stamina" mode wich only enables phone calls and SMS. I got 2% drain in one whole day!
Yesterday my mate 7 became hot, I had to restart it because it was not responding anymore. It's my first problem with mate 7 since I have it. Anyway, I think that kind of problems are normal in every Android device. I'm also looking forward a root solution. Before, all my contacts were synchronized with Google but sadly it's not possible to keep it that way with EMUI. I had to import it (wich was very easy) to EMUI contacts manager.
I have some problems with special characters in french (like é, à, etc..) They are replaced with a chinese character.
getmobilephone said:
We can remotely root the device for you.
GetMobilePhone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it possible to know how?

Inspecteur_Gadget said:
I own the TL10 version too for 3 weeks now. I'm living in Switzerland and can confirm LTE works here.
Is it possible to know how?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are not hiding anything from the xda community though.
We can offer you the code to root, however, during the last step and the most important step of recovery, it requires a Chinese software to proceed, of which it will be difficult for one to perform who cannot read Chinese.
If it is necessary, we can remotely root this device for you, and for our customers of course.

getmobilephone said:
We are not hiding anything from the xda community though.
We can offer you the code to root, however, during the last step and the most important step of recovery, it requires a Chinese software to proceed, of which it will be difficult for one to perform who cannot read Chinese.
If it is necessary, we can remotely root this device for you, and for our customers of course.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm currently learning chinese but I admit I can't understand by myself a root process. Anyway, I can follow a step by step guide. I found two differents ways to root on Baidu but in both, the comments suggest that it doesn't work, so I haven't tried
I unlocked successfully the bootloader. If you can share any link that can help me to root it, I'll be eternally grateful to you

Inspecteur_Gadget said:
I'm currently learning chinese but I admit I can't understand by myself a root process. Anyway, I can follow a step by step guide. I found two differents ways to root on Baidu but in both, the comments suggest that it doesn't work, so I haven't tried
I unlocked successfully the bootloader. If you can share any link that can help me to root it, I'll be eternally grateful to you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are glad to do this for you.
In two days, we will post a detailed instruction for rooting the AM7, for xda community members.

Pulled the trigger.
So I bought this phone, about a week ago, unicom compatible version mt7-tl10. I had actually gone with the mx4 because i wanted a better camera while in china, was currently using my note 3. I returned the mx4 after a day..... it was more buggy than 1.5 used to be haha. Random gcm pushes not happening, app crashing etc, freezes, and battery drains. They will probably sort it out, but I wasn't willing to wait weeks as i needed a functional daily driver so I picked it up at beijing local department store, for 3650rmb, not a bad price compared to what amazon etc are charging.
So my first impressions of the phone, which came with the flip leather case, is that like the cliche marketing pics of the guy in the sand, it is a classy looking phone. The thin bezels are amazing, and it just feels a lot nicer in the hand than my note 3. Now On my note 3 I have a spigen case, so the flip is definitely a thinner device. Caseless it fits in my hands very well, I have large hands but by no means ogre fists and everything is very reachable. I have been partial to large devices, owning every iteration of the note, as well as the ridiculous asus fonepad lol.
Watching reviews i was worried about the Nit* level in screen brightness, but the screen is very clear and crisp, pretty good colour reproduction, definitely not the saturated intensity of a samsung amoled screen, but very nice to watch netflix etc on. It is very responsive and has glove mode in the options so when the temperature drops a bit more I will give that feature a try.
Battery life is insane. Note 3 is no slouch, but this has had days of 7 to 8 hours of screen on time for me, with csip calls, 8 email accounts, 3 on push, wechat, whatsapp, telegram, instagram and a bunch of other daily apps i use... was at 20% in the evening.
Call quality has been decent although i have only used voip programs to make calls, over vpn. I will note that the wifi connectivity is much more stable than my note 3. I get better signal consistently on wifi, which is nice, as I am dependant on it for the most part for internet connectivity, data rates on a pay as go plan in beijing are murder. That said, 3g, 4g, lte all work great and i get very good signal and asu rates on this phone. I know the radio's are optimized vs my NA note 3 but its nice to have consistent signal all over the city with such spotty coverage.
So from a hardware standpoint, this phone feels and works like a quality product, which is what I Think huawei was aiming for..
Now from a software standpoint.. emui is nice, but it's not quite there yet. Without root and xposed modules it's even more of an issue, as there are root fixes for lots of the problems I have experienced.
Starting with the positives, the overall experience has been fluid and smooth, I have not experienced any of the slowdowns mentioned, video playback is stutter free, memory speed seems up to par with decent load times . I do really like the huawei multi tasking implementation on this rom, as I tend to cut and paste and switch between browser and apps quite frequently. Some of the pro reviews complained about the battery consumption monitor... but I find it to be quite useful, allowing me to micro manage apps if I choose, you can always set it to ignore the app after the first warning. Now that said, you may run into issues with non default apps for things like email (i m currently trying out the boxer client). I was doing push tests as i had my note 3 to compare, on same wifi etc... and emails were not coming through... so what i found is, you have to go in and give third party apps from the google play store certain permissions, the ability to run after the screen is off, to startup when device starts up etc... its actually quite useful to have such easy controls for these things, but if you don't know about them... it created a giant headache for me trying to figure out why push wasn't coming through. I thought it was my install of google play services etc... not allowing GCM push's to arrive. nope, just battery and permission settings, once go through for one app, you can easily do it for all the apps you want. Battery life is amazing as a result, as things like yahoo weather and other apps i used to use, were just killing my battery... now on my note i have better battery stats, gsam, wakelock detector.. the whole enchilada in terms of utils for optimizing battery life because i have had problems, even resorted to watch dog combined with greenify, because the wakes that were hidden from all my utils. On my huawei, i dont have any of the tools, the permissions, battery drain detection seem to keep things in check, and google services etc isn;t draining either. I used to find on other non google play native roms, that play services would run amok with battery. So far so good.
The most annoying issue presently is the default app selection. On some apps it works bringing up selected apps that make sense, click a picture selection in whatsapp , brings up gallery as an option. Trying to set my profile pic in another app i use, brings up an array of random useless apps that do not really have anything to do with a picture selection. Now without root or Xposed you cannot change the default apps that come up.. so i m stuck with this bug. I tried a workaround by installing a bunch of file managers to see if they could randomly pop up in the list...only es fileexplorer did and not the right option for it of a standard file browse.
The other major thing i have experienced , and i think it just be me, or my device specifically is finger print accuracy.. now watching all the reviews it looked phenomenal... now maybe its because i have a case on, big fingers or something, but i can only get about 50% accuracy in unlocking my phone with it.. It might be a technique thing too, so I m putting the caveat there.
The other issue, which is one of the reasons I like android over IOS, is the app drawer. Again without root, i dont think I it comes up. Reading above someone has said that they could not get an app drawer to work..I have not tried to install nova as I want to wait until rooted to use it. I find it is easy to lose track of the apps you have with a whole mess of folders stashed away... I like very open pages, with a few widgets but it is hard to have that experience if you have a lot of apps. Now you can just shove all of them into a single folder but it takes 4 to 5 actions to get to the app you want, that is too much for me. I like 3 actions at most, with nova it was app drawer, scroll, click in, worst case. Now its swipe, search for folder, click folder, swipe, to correct folder page, if you have more than 6 apps in folder. Its not the end of the world, but being used to nova style, it shouldn't have to be this way either.
One thing about the notification bar that at first was annoying, until i had a aha moment where i realized it was much more clever than i thought. The notification pull down is actually subdivided into two hotzones. On the left is notifications when you pull down, and on the right is shortcuts to system things, like screen brightness, screenshot, data toggle etc. Now at first i thought i was just getting random selections, until i realized there are hotzones at the top for this.. Another aspect i like is the timeline esque notifications, that give you timestamps and a lot of access to actions like deleting emails, replying etc right from the notification bar as an option... saves a couple clicks so it s a nice touch.
Now another issue I have had is widget display... certain apps do not like to play nice with the grid and end up taking way to much room, and do not adjust properly. One app in particular is network signal info pro the 1x1 widgets take up double the space, and the larger ones block off the screen. On touchwiz i have no issues lining corner to corner with these widgets, so i know its emui in this case.
Overall I find this phone to be a good experience, as I mainly use email and webbrowsing for work, the mega screen on time, and large viewing space make this a pleasant experience. Everyone uses their device differently so I can't say if its a good fit for me... but vs my note three, one the few niggles get ironed out with updates It will remain my daily device for the forseeable future... and for the price vs the note4 or edge...(although the cool factor of the edge is hard to resist) the battery life and screen size are hard to pass up... granted note 4 has higher res..but that just kills battery life, and the ppi is good enough for my purposes, i dont really notice the difference unless i look really closely..but if you have a six inch phone, that is the beauty, you dont have to face hug it to see things.
As for other comparitives, i played around with all the other devices listed... the lenovo Z2 pro.. while having an amazing screen and battery as well, and a ridiculously good camera comparitively, the software experience just wasnt there yet, and having used a k900 before, i wasn't optimistic that lenovo's software team is there yet... by next year they will be a major player i m sure, but it will take 6 to 8 months before that new resource and developer allocation makes a dent in user experience. As i said the mx4 was one of the worst software experiences i have had, now, to be fair it was not and international version, so maybe that one plays nice with google services...but mine certainly didnt. Looked at xiaomi... the mi4 is just too small for me, and battery life is a bit suspect, although miui is polished and updated frequently, it feels like all my data is being downloaded to the central servers.. haha, huawei may not be much better, but from my network tests watching wifi traffic, there isn't to many suspicious calls home. ZTE again, software was a bit laggy, same with their luxury brand, nubia... the oneplus and find7 were here, but oppo s marketing strategy lost me.. and comparitively they just dont look as nice as the huawei does... Now its funny because in china huawei has a bad rep as a cheapo garbage phone, with iphone, samsung, sony and xiaomi taking the prestige roles.. but this device has got some looks and questions as to what it is.. and wow really, a huawei lol.
Hope this is useful in decision making..
cheers.

^ didn't wanted to quote the whole post so .. I think this is the first comment review or whatever u may call it, that I read completely and thoroughly . thanks for your thoughts sir. I can't wait for mine to be delivered.

pantmunu said:
^ didn't wanted to quote the whole post so .. I think this is the first comment review or whatever u may call it, that I read completely and thoroughly . thanks for your thoughts sir. I can't wait for mine to be delivered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, just wanted to get it all down so people know what they re in for. I am fortunate in that i have a pretty lax expenditure account in terms of tech upgrades, so if I make a bad choice on a phone, i only have a to put up with it for a few months. But most have to survive at least a year with their device, and I find on a stressful day its the little things, like an email app crashing, or keyboard not responding lol that make the difference between a good and bad day.
I will add that if you don't read pinyin (i dont) you may have to do some guess and test exploration with the themes etc.. the keyboard is their own version or licensed not sure which, of swype that comes with some very asian themes to choose from the store. The theme store is in pinyin for phone themes but its pretty straight forward to figure out, by seeing the pictures and applying them.
I cant stress how much i love the battery life, it might be an ocd issue for me haha, but i always worry about phone dying. I have the Xiaomi 10000mah battery and the anker 12000 mah battery, but i dont need to pocket them anymore... so far today 96% battery with 45 mins of screen time (all my morning emails) and an ZRTP voip call (encryption usually works battery harder) for 30mins... pretty happy about that.

gn0s1s said:
No problem, just wanted to get it all down so people know what they re in for. I am fortunate in that i have a pretty lax expenditure account in terms of tech upgrades, so if I make a bad choice on a phone, i only have a to put up with it for a few months. But most have to survive at least a year with their device, and I find on a stressful day its the little things, like an email app crashing, or keyboard not responding lol that make the difference between a good and bad day.
I will add that if you don't read pinyin (i dont) you may have to do some guess and test exploration with the themes etc.. the keyboard is their own version or licensed not sure which, of swype that comes with some very asian themes to choose from the store. The theme store is in pinyin for phone themes but its pretty straight forward to figure out, by seeing the pictures and applying them.
I cant stress how much i love the battery life, it might be an ocd issue for me haha, but i always worry about phone dying. I have the Xiaomi 10000mah battery and the anker 12000 mah battery, but i dont need to pocket them anymore... so far today 96% battery with 45 mins of screen time (all my morning emails) and an ZRTP voip call (encryption usually works battery harder) for 30mins... pretty happy about that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just hope we get good amount of development here. And yeah. Glad about the battery life.

Thanks gn0s1s for that exhaustive review!
As i myself cant still decide whether to get the am7 or lenovo vibe z2 pro, and since you mentioned lenovo vibe z2 pro as one you compared the am7 against, may i ask a question. Have you had an ample time to play with the z2 pro to say that the sw experience is lacking?
Thanks for the answer sir!

Bevor I got me a Ascend Mate 7 I had a LG G3. On my trip to China I wanted to buy my a new phone.
I watched for many different phones (Meizu mx4, Xiaomi Mi4, Oppo Find 7, Lenovo vibe z2 pro and the Mate 7).
Many of them I did not buy because they have no LTE working outside of Europe.... or the lack of quality (Meizu was baaaad).
At the end there was only the z2 pro and the Mate 7 in the ring.
I decided against the z2 pro because I would have not a bigger screen then in the LG G3.... and the Mate 7 look&feel was much better.
Hope that helped.

Very positive experience
Hi,
I am a very new owner of Mate 7 Gold MT7-TL10. Have received my device this morning from getmobilephone (xda forum member). Experience with getmobilephone was simply the best experience i have ever had when getting something online. Really recommended!
First impressions are very positive. Build quality is extraordinary. Screen is better than expected. Phone already has factory installed screen protection on it + nice protective case for the phone.
Before purchasing, was hesitating between Note4, lenovo z2 pro and mate7. I believe that Huawei build quality really beats samsung devices. Mate 7 looks and feels like a high quality product.
No problems with 3G or 4G connections in Belgium (and probably in the most rest of Europe).
Phone is fast and responsive. At the moment feels faster than Note3 or Samsung S5.
So far I cannot comment a lot more about other features, as i would need to use this phone for few days first.
Thanks again for getmobilephone and XDA community for this opportunity.

Hello zilviukas,
I'm also from Belgium and i wish to buy the Mate 7. I prefer the Black One with 3 Go of Ram but no info about this configuration !
The Gold is too much 'bling bling' for me Do you know if the Black with 3 Go of ram come one day ?
Have you photos of your phone and the case inside ? How many time for full charge when the battery is low like 10% ? How many time for receipt your phone in Belgium ?
Have fun with your wonderfull phone !!!
P.S. : Now i use the Note 3 with 3 Go of ram but i'm afraid that mate 7 have not the same power than the Note 3 ( sorry for my english). And how is the lisibility outside and under the sun because the Super Amoled from Samsung is wonderfull !

Hi [email protected],
Regarding the battery it charges fast. I have tried to charge from 10% today to full. It took 2.5 hours (approx 150 minutes). But keep in mind that it has this large battery. And at least up to 60% was charging 1% every minute! Maybe other users can be more precise here, as i didn't check when charging slows down.
Regarding Gold version. As far i as know, only gold has 3GB RAM and 32GB internal. Black an silver have lower specs 2GB/16GB.
Reception of the signal is better than my other devices, Note 2 or Note 3.
I have attached some low res images. Let me know if you need higher quality.

Thank you very much for your reply and the photos. Very beautiful phone and case, the window seem to be very big .. more than my smartcover on my Note 3.
What's the functions with the cover (sleep wake-up, photo, music ... ?).
What's the prize with shipping and how many times for receipt tu Belgium ?
If you sold your phone, Call me for an other belgium user
For photos, if you have other pictures with good Light ... think to me
Edit : very good news for the speed of charging because not usb 3.0 on Mate 7.
The position of the speaker give good sound or not when the phone is on the desk ?
Take the phone in the hand for unlock the phone is not very good because with my Note 3, i push the home button and wake up the phone without to take the phone in hand.
With the cover from Huawei, what's happening with the fingerscan and function wake up when you open the cover ? The cover has a magnet for to keep close or not ?

[email protected] said:
Thank you very much for your reply and the photos. Very beautiful phone and case, the window seem to be very big .. more than my smartcover on my Note 3.
What's the functions with the cover (sleep wake-up, photo, music ... ?).
What's the prize with shipping and how many times for receipt tu Belgium ?
If you sold your phone, Call me for an other belgium user
For photos, if you have other pictures with good Light ... think to me
Edit : very good news for the speed of charging because not usb 3.0 on Mate 7.
The position of the speaker give good sound or not when the phone is on the desk ?
Take the phone in the hand for unlock the phone is not very good because with my Note 3, i push the home button and wake up the phone without to take the phone in hand.
With the cover from Huawei, what's happening with the fingerscan and function wake up when you open the cover ? The cover has a magnet for to keep close or not ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am also in Belgium and i am using the mate 7 32gb 3gb for 1 week now. Excellent phone, very fast, really nothing to say except that as it is a chinese version, i am having chinese writings depsite putting it in english. I am awaiting promptly for a custom rom
4g is working properly here, screen quality is amazing, battery is great, sound quality is excellent ... The only bad idea was from huawei to have put 2 sim cards in 2 different formats. One in Micro sim and one nano Very annoying but honestly, this phone is almost "perfect".

Huawei just tweeted that they have sold 1 million mate 7 in only 1 month. That is only accounting most sales from china (coz the device is not yet available in many markets).
I am hoping that with many people buying mate 7, it will spur development of custom rom for this device.

Moving from iPhone to android

Dear all ,
Good morning.
I have been considering selling my aging iPhone 6s Plus and moving to android.
Mainly because of stale design(same as 3-4 years ago) and horrible/laggy/battery draining updates.
So about taking a dive back to android.
Before i got my 6s plus i had s7 edge. While i did like the phone overall , i had one major deal breaker for me. Heat.
I do not like a heating phone. I would use s7 edge for 20 minutes surfing the web via wifi and it reached 32-34 degrees (ambient temp 26). iphone would stay cool even if i browsed for hours.
So, my question to you guys, since you already posses the device, is : does the s8 plus behave thermaly the same as s7 edge ~~~clarification : In my area only the exynos variant is available.?

I cannot compare it to an s7 edge because I did not ever owned one but I can say no, absolutely not. I came from iphone 7 plus to the (normal) s8 and dont ever had the feeling that my device gets an uncomfortable temperature. During basic tasks like browsing, downloading and testing apps, whatsapp&facebook and so on it is "cold" - at least for me. Even when playing light games like clash royale (only game I play now and then) it doesnt come to an uncomfortable temperature, maybe 3-4°C warmer. The only situation the s8 gets really warm (and by warm I dont mean hot) is when charging through usb or qi, but I think this is physically unavoidable.

Personally, I don't have an S8, but I used one for a couple of hours and it gets pretty warm.

Thank you guys!
Just a clarification : In my area only the exynos variant is available.

chris2busy said:
Thank you guys!
Just a clarification : In my area only the exynos variant is available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, here in my area (Austria) is also only exynos available

My S8 definitely heats up more with pokemon go compared to my iPhone 7.
By the way, if you think an S8 will get you out of lags and battery drains, read the threads in this forum from other users complaining the exact issues.

ikeny said:
My S8 definitely heats up more with pokemon go compared to my iPhone 7.
By the way, if you think an S8 will get you out of lags and battery drains, read the threads in this forum from other users complaining the exact issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the s8 has also nearly four times the pixels to push than the iphone 7
and my s8 doesnt lag at all after 7 month and I have a custom rom on it, which I have heavily skinned and customized

s8 gets hot only when you fast charge it. Other than that its pretty cool.

Thank you guys! Awaiting more of your experiences in orderr to make an educated purchase!

Bump

Only while gaming and charging. Regular surfing, media playback or socializing has no impact cool as a breeze.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

get an iPhone X Plus if you're used to iPhones
MicI wouldn't recommend S8 or S8+, maybe Note 8, but I think you'll be happier with an iPhone X Plus if you're used to iPhones. Personally, I don't care for iOS at all. Android is way better than iOS, but I really think you'll like iPhone X Plus.
Note: Your experience with an Exynos S8/S8+/Note 8 might be better than mine with S8+ Snapdragon, because it really isn't convenient to have a locked bootloader and a rooted phone that only charges to 80%!

No lag so far on my phone, I came from the S6 and that used to heat up a lot (so much so I could use it as a hand warmer on cold days, and some times I could not hold it to my face on calls).
My S8 has stayed cool, it has only gotten warm once or twice, and that wasn't very much. I regularly surf, use social media, play Vainglory and Mobile Strike. I also stream to my TV every now and then and it's been good.
I have the regular S8 on Oreo Beta 2.

Thank you,
So far it seems that s8plus does not have the same thermal attitude that exynos s7edge had.
I am tempted to make the move soon.

I've had my S8 for 3 odd months now, but I'm not a gamer, I've never had it heat up, I had teh G6 and iPhone 7 prior to this but hated the image quality of the iPhone, just a mushy mess when looking closer, the S8 is in another league IQ wise. iPhones are beautifully built but the S8 is equal to it these days. I'm very happy, I rooted my S8 only this week and am loving it, 60 odd hours between charges, 6 hours SoT (actually want much less before rooting) nothing more I could ask for. Superb device.

I also love my s8 and I also dont think I will upgrade to s9 when its released.
it has a small form factor (compared to other devices with that screen size), a gorgeous display, wireless charging, stereo speakers (with mod), is fast and snappy, has one of the best cameras, is water resistant,...
This phone has all I want and need
everything except the stock android ui experience. if this would happen one day, I think samsung phones would win another like 20-30% of "potential customers that are yet afraid of moving to touchwiz. I themed it as best as possible to stock pixel ui and I can live with it. Maybe samsung is making the move slowly over the years to go away from their playful icons and settings ui and closer to stock like sony or motorola/lenovo did.
Imagine the s8 with stock android - noone would buy pixel 2

FloM94 said:
I also love my s8 and I also dont think I will upgrade to s9 when its released.
it has a small form factor (compared to other devices with that screen size), a gorgeous display, wireless charging, stereo speakers (with mod), is fast and snappy, has one of the best cameras, is water resistant,...
This phone has all I want and need
everything except the stock android ui experience. if this would happen one day, I think samsung phones would win another like 20-30% of "potential customers that are yet afraid of moving to touchwiz. I themed it as best as possible to stock pixel ui and I can live with it. Maybe samsung is making the move slowly over the years to go away from their playful icons and settings ui and closer to stock like sony or motorola/lenovo did.
Imagine the s8 with stock android - noone would buy pixel 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, if it was stock and updated with the latest OS like the Pixel 2 (it will get more OS updates than through Samsung), then the Pixel 2 would have very few sales.

CJ0206 said:
I agree, if it was stock and updated with the latest OS like the Pixel 2 (it will get more OS updates than through Samsung), then the Pixel 2 would have very few sales.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
argh..i know.. i was set on pixel 2 XL but the million screen issues put me off..

Some more love here?

Just buy the damm phone ( S8 plus )....
You will not regret it .
Àwesome in every bloody way.
Coming from iphone 7

If you're on the fence about buying this tablet, well just don't. Yet...

This is one of the most unbelieveably slow tablets I have ever experienced. It is VERY interesting that there is such a high percentage of people on this forum who claim their tablet doesn't show any signs of slow down and is very snappy, no lag at all, and gaming performance is top notch. I am here to tell you that these people either work for Samsung or literally have something wrong with the connection between their eyeballs and brains.
Now before I get into the details I would like to say that not all is lost for this tablet and it may someday be the best thing money can buy. Let me explain.... I noticed something very similar when using this tablet. I couldn't put my finger on it right away and then it hit me. This thing feels just like that terribly sluggish s7 edge I used to have. HMMM what do those two have in common you say??? Same SOC, same manufacturer, same-ish software. This thing CHUGS! and I don't want to hear anyone try to refute it. It is unbearable. Just exactly like the s7 edge.
I figured I might be able to clean up the performance on this thing with a custom kernel, just as they have done over on the s7 forums. I was wrong. I rooted and installed a kernel that would allow me to set the governor to performance to see if it helped. It did, but not enough. And performance smokes your battery in no time anyway so isn't a real solution. Samsung has literally destroyed this chip with their DVFS junk just as they have done in the past. I can't belive this was allowed to be released like this AND at this price.
Now for the good part. The s8 was pretty slugglish at release as well (not quite like the s7), but was recently updated to Oreo and it FLIES, just like the Note 8 does. It seems Samsung has finally started taking performance seriously and has figured out how to make their phones have great performance without sacrificing battery life. The tab s3 is slated for the Oreo update in 2018, so we will see what it does to the performance.

Since Google completely messed up their last tablet (the Pixel C's wifi is worse than a 5 year old Nexus 4) and left the market, samsung is the only player left in the so-called highend Android tablet space so here we are with a SD820 from early 2016 instead of a SD835 and broken wifi power-saving since launch. I fully expect Samsung to continue this crap with the Tab S4: copy the 10.5 screen size from the new ipad pro so it looks good on paper but then use the SD835 from 2017 instead of the SD845 which will have been shipping for 6 months by the time they launch the S4 in mid 2018. Hopefully we get a fully working device this time and not something like the Tab S3 and it's totally borked wifi sleep. But hey, could be worse, a fast wifi chip that doesn't sleep and causes power drain is arguably much much better than the slow as molasses crap Google put in the Pixel C (google Pixel C wifi or head over to Anandtech for a deep analysis).
Gone are the good days of the Tab S2 and Nexus 9, both good devices with small shortcomings.

undertaker2k14 said:
Since Google completely messed up their last tablet (the Pixel C's wifi is worse than a 5 year old Nexus 4) and left the market, samsung is the only player left in the so-called highend Android tablet space so here we are with a SD820 from early 2016 instead of a SD835 and broken wifi power-saving since launch. I fully expect Samsung to continue this crap with the Tab S4: copy the 10.5 screen size from the new ipad pro so it looks good on paper but then use the SD835 from 2017 instead of the SD845 which will have been shipping for 6 months by the time they launch the S4 in mid 2018. Hopefully we get a fully working device this time and not something like the Tab S3 and it's totally borked wifi sleep. But hey, could be worse, a fast wifi chip that doesn't sleep and causes power drain is arguably much much better than the slow as molasses crap Google put in the Pixel C (google Pixel C wifi or head over to Anandtech for a deep analysis).
Gone are the good days of the Tab S2 and Nexus 9, both good devices with small shortcomings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh the irony!
So I bought 5 tablets this week: Tab s2, Tab s3, Shield Tablet, Nexus 9, and Pixel C. I thoroughly tested all 5 and came to the conclusion that I am keeping the Pixel. And now you hit me with this! lol
So I ran to the tablet with my Note 8 in hand and started doing side by side speed tests and range tests. I found that the Pixel is getting up to 3 times faster download speeds, about the same uploads, and the range seems consistent between the two. Hmmm. I already have the Pixel on Oreo so maybe that has something to do with it?
Not sure, but even if the wifi performance is slow or range bad, it is much better than the other 4 in my opinion. I made a post over on the Pixel C forum to inquire and will try to get to the bottom of it.
I needed a tablet that would game well, multi task, and word process fairly easily. The s2 was my favorite of the bunch but just didn't have the horsepower I was looking for, you know how I feel about the s3 already lol (it would be my fav by far without the lag), the shield has a crap touchscreen, and the good ole Nexus 9 actually does very well for it's age once you get the stock software flashed off. The Pixel C was winner by default, not by choice. I hope 8.0 fixes the Tab s3 so I can buy one 2018. I really didn't want to go above 9 inch due to portability, but there just isn't anything out there and I was forced to look at the bigger ones.

What's most aggravating about the Pixel C situation was that Google employed their forum mods and drones for months on end to drown out folks like myself who were complaining about the wifi situation until anandtech confirmed what we had known all along:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/9996/revisiting-the-google-pixel-c/4
With samsung, they have kind of acknowledged the wifi power drain exists on their official forums, they are just indifferent to it.

I have had no issue's with my Tab S3 SM T825 I do have to wait on it on occasion hey it's SD 820 but it's only about a second or two so not an issue.
This is from from am Android developer so
And rooting it pretty much renders Netflix useless and I want HDR so won't go into magisk and all that crap just a clean plain Samsung tablet with developer mode on
My OnePlus 5 is more than enough for root stuff
Plus you can always sideload apps so I don't know what you're ranting about and you don't even mention specifically where you found to slow
Gaming is good only game that didn't detect Adreno 530 was Telltale Batman. Video binge watching lasts me 8 hours from 100 percentage at 67 percentage brightness.
What else do you want from this tablet word office s pen
What the heck you trying to do? MOVE A MOUNTAIN?
---------- Post added at 08:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:34 PM ----------
undertaker2k14 said:
What's most aggravating about the Pixel C situation was that Google employed their forum mods and drones for months on end to drown out folks like myself who were complaining about the wifi situation until anandtech confirmed what we had known all along:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/9996/revisiting-the-google-pixel-c/4
With samsung, they have kind of acknowledged the wifi power drain exists on their official forums, they are just indifferent to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WiFi power drain I tested today its fine from 33 percentage it went down to 27 after 3 hours that's ok with me. I charge my tab s3 once in two days or so

Fully agree with OP
Chrome is unusable. I check everyday for a stock rom. It'd embarrassing from Samsung for this price..

SS2006 said:
Fully agree with OP
Chrome is unusable. I check everyday for a stock rom. It'd embarrassing from Samsung for this price..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's all in the software man don't worry. Oreo will turn the tablet into lightning just like the note 8. Go look at the oneplus 3, same 820 chipset and it flies and never slows down. Samsung destroyed all the 820 devices with bad software. It will be fixed sometime this year.
It still amazes me that there are people on this site that will argue with you until the end of time that this device doesn't lag lol I can't relate to these people at all.

seh6183 said:
It's all in the software man don't worry. Oreo will turn the tablet into lightning just like the note 8. Go look at the oneplus 3, same 820 chipset and it flies and never slows down. Samsung destroyed all the 820 devices with bad software. It will be fixed sometime this year.
It still amazes me that there are people on this site that will arguing with you until the end of time that this device doesn't lag lol I can't relate to these people at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha I've given up hope on this thing.
It's basically just a Netflix display and PDF reader for me.
Multitasking just kills it, and I'm sure the skeleton Dev team Samsung has put on this device will not be able to implement Oreo properly either.

seh6183 said:
This is one of the most unbelieveably slow tablets I have ever experienced. It is VERY interesting that there is such a high percentage of people on this forum who claim their tablet doesn't show any signs of slow down and is very snappy, no lag at all, and gaming performance is top notch. I am here to tell you that these people either work for Samsung or literally have something wrong with the connection between their eyeballs and brains.
Now before I get into the details I would like to say that not all is lost for this tablet and it may someday be the best thing money can buy. Let me explain.... I noticed something very similar when using this tablet. I couldn't put my finger on it right away and then it hit me. This thing feels just like that terribly sluggish s7 edge I used to have. HMMM what do those two have in common you say??? Same SOC, same manufacturer, same-ish software. This thing CHUGS! and I don't want to hear anyone try to refute it. It is unbearable. Just exactly like the s7 edge.
I figured I might be able to clean up the performance on this thing with a custom kernel, just as they have done over on the s7 forums. I was wrong. I rooted and installed a kernel that would allow me to set the governor to performance to see if it helped. It did, but not enough. And performance smokes your battery in no time anyway so isn't a real solution. Samsung has literally destroyed this chip with their DVFS junk just as they have done in the past. I can't belive this was allowed to be released like this AND at this price.
Now for the good part. The s8 was pretty slugglish at release as well (not quite like the s7), but was recently updated to Oreo and it FLIES, just like the Note 8 does. It seems Samsung has finally started taking performance seriously and has figured out how to make their phones have great performance without sacrificing battery life. The tab s3 is slated for the Oreo update in 2018, so we will see what it does to the performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had a Tab S3 for a year now, and am absolutely delighted with it.
Previously a Tab S, that was getting long in the tooth. Prior to that Nexus 7 and the updated version.
The Tab S is as fast as I could wish for, and great battery life.
I object to your characterisation of people who like it. I expected better from a Senior Member of this forum.

I bought my S3 off Amazon and it was pretty sluggish but flashing another region's firmware on it made it fly, been really happy with its battery life and performance over the last six months or so.
Having said that I really don't think high end android tablets are worth it so this is probably my last for a while yet, the cost is too high for the marginal improvement in functionality over a high end smartphone. I knew HDR was a gimmick going in but I was hoping that I'd be able to replace a laptop with the S3 but it just can't quite hang when it comes to any sort of real work load.

Look at my posts
HDR is no gimmick. There is no such possibility. It's like the js7200 which has HDR but they haven't shown it. But tab has better brightness.
And for all here saying tab lags it just doesn't it's the best flagship tablet to get besides the ipad but oled mean my eyes don't redden anymore or strain at all.
So it's not like a phone flagship ok. But most of your PC's would do a worser job on word than this! Also pixel c just don't match.
Chrome does drain battery I read twd comics entire and every single time it drained 1 percentage for 5 to 10 mins each. Samsung internet had zero to minimal drain considering and in stark comparison. Don't blame the tablet blame google.
Everything is smooth sometimes rarely it acts weird like it's dead but then it's ok like it's got the Hangover once or twice every month for a few minutes.
Stop the hate, this is the only tab that you can love if you can't use ipad or want OLED. I mean it's better than the TV. Now my TV is just the playstation monitor.

Kizznyc said:
HDR is no gimmick. There is no such possibility. It's like the js7200 which has HDR but they haven't shown it. But tab has better brightness.
And for all here saying tab lags it just doesn't it's the best flagship tablet to get besides the ipad but oled mean my eyes don't redden anymore or strain at all.
So it's not like a phone flagship ok. But most of your PC's would do a worser job on word than this! Also pixel c just don't match.
Chrome does drain battery I read twd comics entire and every single time it drained 1 percentage for 5 to 10 mins each. Samsung internet had zero to minimal drain considering and in stark comparison. Don't blame the tablet blame google.
Everything is smooth sometimes rarely it acts weird like it's dead but then it's ok like it's got the Hangover once or twice every month for a few minutes.
Stop the hate, this is the only tab that you can love if you can't use ipad or want OLED. I mean it's better than the TV. Now my TV is just the playstation monitor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you get tab S4 :cyclops:
It is a great tablet, but it has its faults, a limited battery, limited software to take advantage of the Spen, the lack of mechanism to hold the Spen is another serious error, to mention some opportunities.
It's not hate, it's the feeling that it could have been an unparalleled tablet that finally feels like a tab 2.5 and not a real tab s3, and Android does not help much to take advantage of our tab.
Definitely I have enjoyed my tab S2 more than my tab s3, the deficiencies are there and it is something that Samsung will have to improve in the future tab s4. And any laptop with the same retail price its seriously better for daily work over our tab.
In conclusion, great tablet that could have been something that did not finish to achieve.

I have asked the mods to remove this thread or close it permanently, so it should be going down soon. I will be replacing it with a new post soon. The new post will explain everything.

Closed per OP request

S8 in late 2018?

Looking to buy my wife a new phone cause her iPhone 6S battery is dieing out. I plan to get her the S8 exynos and flash a pixel room. Thought about getting her an S9 buy the exynos version has problems with poor battery. Plus the S8 is on sale for $375.
Her use is mainly messaging, social media apps and youtube. How's the speed/fluidity of the phone?
I ask cause I have a pixel 2xl and it's working flawlessly. Smoother than the OnePlus 6 I had before it. The SD835 isn't far behind the SD845 like one would think. I also heard good things about the exynos 8895.
I really don't want to get her a phone with issues cause I'll end up having to buy her another one. Would appreciate detailed opinions/reviews. Thanks.

Will008 said:
Looking to buy my wife a new phone cause her iPhone 6S battery is dieing out. I plan to get her the S8 exynos and flash a pixel room. Thought about getting her an S9 buy the exynos version has problems with poor battery. Plus the S8 is on sale for $375.
Her use is mainly messaging, social media apps and youtube. How's the speed/fluidity of the phone?
I ask cause I have a pixel 2xl and it's working flawlessly. Smoother than the OnePlus 6 I had before it. The SD835 isn't far behind the SD845 like one would think. I also heard good things about the exynos 8895.
I really don't want to get her a phone with issues cause I'll end up having to buy her another one. Would appreciate detailed opinions/reviews. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got the phone about a month ago and here are my thoughts:
-Not as fast as a Pixel 2 or a Oneplus 6 but still good enough. You wouldn't call this a slow phone. Apps won't launch as quickly as a phone with stock android, but it's not a big deal imo. Reduce the animation time from developer settings and you'll be good to go.
-Camera is fantastic. Sometimes even better than the S9.
-Battery life is good after some tweaking. I get about 6 hours of SOT and a full day of mixed use.
-Samsung Experience UI is so much better than the old TouchWiz. I'd suggest that you try it before switching to a custom rom. Features like Good Lock can help you customize your phone like never before. It's not the gimmicky bloat of the past.
-The curved screen is a bloody pain for phone cases and tempered glasses. But I still like it. Makes the grip of the phone much better for me. I'd suggest getting a full screen glue tempered glass from AliExpress or a Whitestone Dome from Amazon (this may sound like a trivial point but trust me, it's very important).
I think the S8 is a great value buy over the S9. I got it for about $380 myself and I have no regrets. Fantastic features, keeps the headphone jack.

6 hours sot? do you mind sharing your tricks, master?
i usually have 3 and end the day on 30-40% left at 8 pm
anaway, i can fully recommend this phone, still looks and feels like it came out two weeks ago

TexasHoldemJoker said:
6 hours sot? do you mind sharing your tricks, master?
i usually have 3 and end the day on 30-40% left at 8 pm
anaway, i can fully recommend this phone, still looks and feels like it came out two weeks ago
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS8/comments/71imyw/neomancrs_general_battery_and_performance_tuning
I've followed most of these settings.
Make sure you add most of your apps to the "Always Sleeping Apps" list in the battery settings.
Turn off background data for apps you don't need.
Use the "Moderate" setting of battery saving and customize it to your preference.
SOT varies from person to person. On a very heavy day with a full day of 4g use I can get about 4.5-5 hours SOT.
On a light day, I get about 6-6.5 hours
Today was quite a light day. Maybe about an hour of continuous 4g use. Rest has been WiFi and social media.

I only make 3-4h SOT....
So... NO

After year and couple a months that's my opinion.... Awesome

I have this phone for about 10 months now. I had no troubles with it. I haven't seen an app crash since i updated from a really sh phone, alcatel one youch idol mini 3, so from my experience its effin superb phone. Display is amazing, really, amazing. Full screen videos are outstanding, youtube option to zoom till filled is just wow. 2 apps at the same time is my fav option. YT on top and anything else on the bottom. Two accounts for social media apps. Additional storage.. amazing camera with super slo mo 4k video etc.. all in all my experience for s8+ is 9/10

Keep it stock,for a woman its better.

I just got mine second hand about 3 months ago. That is a good deal.
Coming from iphone 6plus(work phone) I did not think I would like it. My other phone at that time was an essential phone. And all my previous phones were pure android. So I did not think I would like the samsung overlay.
It is great the only thing I have done was turn on developer options to get rid if navigation buttons and notification area.
I use it heavily for work email. My app is not battery optimized. Syncing data for changes documents and some tethering data.
Each day I put on the charger at 5:45am and I take it off the charger about 7am and it last me all day until I go to bed about 11pm. I don't pay attention to the battery percentage since I hide the notification at top.
As for speed I don't have a problem.
I would not worry about rooting the phone unless there is a tweak you really need. I have rooted and ROMed every phone but this one. The samsung extras are really good

Muresan01 said:
Keep it stock,for a woman its better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was only thinking to do that to get rid of bloat and make sure it doesn't slow by time as everyone says about Samsung's phones. From the comments I've been getting I see that's not needed anymore. Thanks.

Will008 said:
Was only thinking to do that to get rid of bloat and make sure it doesn't slow by time as everyone says about Samsung's phones. From the comments I've been getting I see that's not needed anymore. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah I still got mine other than a couple stock restores due to bricking mine doesn't ever lag. But I am also rooted and tweaked to the max allowable.
I would have to say depending on the price it's still a good option just no root method for US users any more

Overall love

Yes, yes, it's possible to love a phone. Heck, you sleep next to it, don't you? Rate this thread to indicate your love for the Redmi Note 9, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Redmi Note 9 is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

I was given this RN9 yesterday as a present (replacing a Pocophone F1 which broke). Got to say, I love this phone!
It's terrific! Took a bit of meddling to set it up the way I like (switching the stock launcher for CPL and stripping out a load of miui cruft) but the hardware is really lovely. Hoping to get a decent Gcam port, but the stock camera takes really nice photos, going by the handful of snaps I've taken today
NFC reader works perfectly (I'd read somewhere that it didn't actually have one, despite the specs claiming it does - mine, an international M2003J15SG, definitely does have NFC)
If anything, I prefer it to my old F1 - I haven't noticed any performance difference, seems lighter, several features the F1 missed (incl NFC), no notch
And incredible value - just under €180 for the 4/128gb version (or free if it's a birthday present ?)
Face unlock is as quick as the F1's ir unlock
Not seen a single ad in the UI either!
It's great ?
Charging doesn't seem the quickest, but it's an enormous battery to fill I guess

Great phone! Excellent all round ?

Damn this phone has some impressive battery life!! I have a 1+7 pro and this phone gives me way more sot with even more heavy use

Chalkingwhites said:
Damn this phone has some impressive battery life!! I have a 1+7 pro and this phone gives me way more sot with even more heavy use
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Saying that, I played PUBG last evening with game turbo on and the battery really suffered. Played it just now without game turbo - still very playable but much more easy on the charge level

RN9 sure is a bang for your buck type of phone which makes you appreciate the extra features it boasts for it's price. Just don't expect flagship type of performance. It's still servicable for your daily needs.

It's good so far , I just switched from my broken Mi Mix 3 . the phone make me rock with his perfect battery and nice performance for such as under 180$ phone. yeah it's lovely

Coming from the Mi A1 so the speed upgrade is very much noticeable. Camera big big upgrade. Screen lovely. However I am disappointed that the reseller sold as Global but it's not, hardware wise. Got the -SS version without NFC running global ROM. That while NFC was one of the main reasons I opted for Note9 not Redmi 9
Also the lack of location based unlocking is annoying.
That said I use the phone mainly for browsing, messaging etc so I'll learn to live with it
Recommended with the strong advice to double check with reseller which exact version you're getting...

Edit: The following problem seems to be remedied in MIUI 12.0.7 update which is great but still, it has taken more than half a year since release that this dreadful problem finally get addressed. Still appreciated that they care about such cheap device.
(This was on a 3/64 GB model)
Overall, I think this phone has a very good value for it's price (stellar battery life, nice display, good SoC, good haptic feedback, multiple nice features), but the only gripe (a big one) I have is the performance issues. For usual tasks, it's okay for a mid-end chip, but sometimes it would just freeze up for so long (more than a minute for sure) that I would have to force restart which I find very irritating. (imagine chatting with your friend and you swap apps to take a screenshot to send to your friend, only for your phone to freeze up waiting for you to restart or wait for more than a minute while your friend is confused as to why you are away for so long) (or just during an online game session and your phone just became unusable while your opponent just wrecks you who helplessly can't do anything)
I have observed that the freezing problem usually occurs when the remaining RAM is low which is almost every time I'm running multiple apps. I would have to try to manually close any apps that I don't need anymore to avoid this problem. This would also mean that playing games will be likely to cause a freeze (which is also really happening).
This problem has been happening since I brought the phone on August with MIUI 11, but MIUI 12 also doesn't fix the issue.
While I don't know if the same thing will happen if I were to go with a higher RAM model, I think this kind of problem should not be happening in the first place (even my old phone from 6 years ago, a Galaxy Note 4 that also has 3GB of RAM, that was broken still doesn't have this issue). If they knew that there would be a freezing problem with a lower RAM model, they shouldn't just have it on sell in the first place. Although I suspect that this is a problem with the software, not hardware which can be fixed in the future (I hope).
Overall, I felt somewhat disappointed

coming from lg v20 very old phone
very smooth i love the battery life i don't care about charging speed as long as the battery lasts for a long time
i recommend getting note 9s or note 9 pro if you can! it is very noticeable for gamers snapdragon is always better and 9 pro for better camera
if you want to root you have to wait for 7 days or 3 depends (sometimes 3 months rare lol) to only unlock phone
a lot of bloatware it is xiaomi after all so i suggest debloater or just sell your data